Beef and Mushroom Burgers

 Here is a recipe I made the other day. It turned out so yummy the kids had three helpings!

Beef and Mushroom Burgers

By: http://bananasbread.blogspot.com/ 

 Ingredients:

• 1 lb Baby Portabella Mushrooms 
• 2 slices Whole Wheat Bread 
• 1-2 Eggs 
• 1 lb Ground Beef
• 1/2 cup Diced Onion 
• 2-3 tbsp Flax Seed Meal (optional)
• 1-2 tbsp Oregano 
• 1-2 tbsp Basil 
• 1tsp Garlic Powder
• Pepper to taste (about 1tsp) 
• Salt to taste (about 1 1/2 tsp)
• 12 Whole Wheat Rolls   

1.  Put bread in the food processor, pulse until ground. Then turn to "On" and add mushrooms.
2. When the mushrooms are chopped add the egg, and pulse until the mixture is combined. 
3. Pour the mushroom mixture into a bowl and add the remaining ingredients, mix well. Refrigerate the mixture until ready to use. 
4. Form the mixture into patties and grill about five minutes on each side, or until done. 
5. Serve on WW rolls with Spring Mix greens and your toppings of choice.
6. Makes about 12 medium burgers. 
7. Enjoy!

Food for thought

We have watched three documentaries in the last few weeks that really made me stop and think a little more about the foods we are eating.

King Corn - Two guys track their corn from field to plate and find it in some unexpected places.

Food, Inc -How our food industry looks more like a factory than a farm, how we got there, and why we should try to get back.  

Disclaimer: You may notice a liberal slant, and please remember this is only one side of the story, so watch with a grain of salt. I love the point made at the end that every purchase we make is a vote for the food we want to see and eat.

Super Size Me -After hearing about people suing the fast food industry, one guy decides to eat only McDonald's food for one month and see what happens.
Disclaimer: This is PG-13, so maybe not something to watch with the kids around, but it is really, really good! It had wonderful information and an unexpected ending while keeping us entertained all the way through.

They can all be viewed on Netflix as Instant-play if you have that option. That's how we watched them. They were all fascinating, so if you get a chance check them out! 

So Many Strawberries!

After coming home from the U-pick farm I had the job of cleaned up all the berries. The kids helped cut some of them up for eating, and the rest all went into the freezer.

It took about 3hrs to clean them all up (thank goodness for movies on the lap top!), but it went faster after I set up a little system. I had one bowl for soaking, one for trash, one for draining, and one for the finished, ready to bag berries. I think by the time I got them put away I had eaten my weight in strawberries.

We ended up with 4 gallon bags in the freezer, 3 cups of chopped berries, and about 2lbs left whole for eating during the week. 

I have big plans for the frozen berries! I have already used one bag for strawberry smoothies, 3 canned jars of Emeril's strawberry syrup, and some awesome strawberry/banana muffins. It really worked out nice to make the syrup and the muffins at the same time, because I needed to skim some of the large strawberry pieces off the top of my cooking syrup, so I just put them straight in to the muffin batter. No waste, and the muffins were delicious! 

I am also planning to can some strawberry jam, but I think I will have to borrow a large canning pot for that. My dutch oven pot is just not big enough for doing more than 3 or 4 small jars, and if I am going to can jam I want to do a big batch.

Do you have a wonderful recipe for using up loads of delicious strawberries? Leave the recipe or a link in the comments, I would love to see it!

Strawberry Picking

We went to a U-pick strawberry farm a few weeks ago, and the kids had a great time!

 They were allowed to eat as many strawberries as they wanted while picking.

Happy strawberry face!

Here is JP doing a silly dance.

And lovely Immy! 

I showed them how to pick the bright red berries without holes or bruises, and they kept bringing me their berries to show me how they had picked "the perfect one". They really did great picking too, and were so proud of "their" box. 

After the picking we paid for our berries, all 25lb of them, and then stood in a really long line for the best homemade strawberry ice cream and homemade strawberry shortcake I have ever had! Totally worth the wait, and a great treat before heading home!

Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas

We eat a lot of WW tortillas, so I wanted to try to making some that would be cheaper and healthier. I found a recipe here at KitchenStewardship.

 Here is the dough. I made a double batch and cut the dough into 16 pieces.

 Then rolled them out into a circle (kind of). 

 Pan cooked (I love this pan!).

 Done! Ok, there was a little clean up to do. 

I stored them in a ziplock bag in the fridge. Ours lasted for two weeks before we ate them all, they were starting to get hard towards the end, but were still really good! 

Summer Sewing: T-shirts

I cut off some of Lulu's long sleeve T-shirts now that the weather is warming up.

The first T-shirt (purple) I cut off at a 3/4-sleeve length, then turned up the ends twice making a 1 1/2 inch cuff, and ironed it in place. Then I sewed it in place with two lines of stitching, using a navy blue thread to match the details on the shirt. I started my line at the underarm seam, so that my messy start and finish would not be seen when the shirt is being worn.

The second shirt (white) I cut off at a short-sleeve length, I used one of her other T-shirts as a guide for the length, and then added about 2 inches for the hem. I turned it under twice, ironing each time, then sewed it with one stitch line in white thread.

Sewing on the shirts was really easy to do. I was nervous about the stretch of the material, but it turned out fine. Much easier than jeans!

Isn't she cute!

Summer Sewing: Jeans

I cut off some of the kid's jeans for the summer weather. 

The first pair (boy's light blue) was a 3T length, but fit my little guy in the waist, so I turned them into shorts. I laid a pair of his favorite shorts over the jeans to get the right length, then cut the jeans about 1 inch longer for the hem. I turned them under once, because my machine can only handle two layers of denim, and sewed two lines with a gold colored Jeans Top Stitching thread. The bobbin was white sewing thread. I'm not sure if the fraying inside is going to be a problem, but I plan to use Fray-Check if it is. 

The second pair (girl's grey/blue) was just ready for a summer re-do. I cut them about 2 inches below the center of the knee then turned them up twice making a 1 inch cuff that would sit at the center of the knee. This pair of jeans was made out of a stretch-denim, so it was not as thick as regular denim, and I was able to sew through three layers. I stitched once around the cuff with the same gold Top Stitching thread and white bobbin thread as the first pair.

I did have some trouble sewing through the denim, especially through the side seams; my seam ripper got some regular use during this project. I would recommend starting just before the inside side seam so that when you come around to finish the stitch line you won't need to stop after riding over a side seam. (Hope that makes sense :)

They turned out so cute!