What We Really Eat, Part 2

What do we eat? Carbs mostly. It's true. I'm not proud of it, but we eat a ton of bread, pasta, and sugar. I rationalize it by saying at least it's whole wheat, but really we probably should cut back. We all love breads (and as I've mentioned before, crackers) and have some type of bread at every meal and snack. The babies have also all inherited my sweet tooth, I'm afraid. 

Submitted for your approval - some random recipes from the Dolbi Collection:

Paige made these amazing chocolate chunk cookie ice cream sandwiches

These are our go-to cookies but we usually don't put chocolate in them. We call them Kara cookies after my sister who likes the last cookies made from chocolate chip dough that don't have any chips in them. At least, that's the story I remember, it was a long time ago, who knows if it's true. LOL Doug's mom sent us Easter baskets (yea!) so Paige chopped up some of the bunnies to add, she's a genius.

Kara Cookies

Dry:
1 C oats
1 1/4 C ww flour
1 t soda
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon

Wet:
1/2 C shortening
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla

optional: 1 C chocolate or other chips or chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350*. Cream wet ingredients, add to dry ingredients, then add chips or nuts. Place about 1-2 T balls onto cookie sheets, bake 8-10 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

I usually make double or triple batches and shape it into logs and put it in the freezer so I can make a few cookies whenever the mood strikes (or, let's be honest, to just eat frozen).

What about that bread?

baked goodness

Today I used my basic recipe bread dough to make cinnamon rolls and hummus rolls. The cinnamon rolls are old news - wonderful, gooey, sugary, old news, but the hummus rolls, now that was a new idea; and a delicious new idea, if I do say so myself! That, my friends, is a terrifically awful run-on sentence with horrible punctuation, you're welcome!

So, rolls:

Basic yeast bread

8 oz soy (or regular) milk plus 8 oz water at 110* (just barely warm to the touch)

4t yeast

1/3 C sugar or 2T honey

mix above and let sit 5ish minutes (until the top is foamy), then add the following and stir.

2 egg yolks

2 oz oil

2 t salt

4C ww flour plus 2C ww flour

It is hard to say how much flour exactly, you are looking for a slightly sticky dough, but the exact amount changes with the temperature and humidity of the room and the attitude of the ingredients and the alignment of the stars and... and... I add 4 cups then dump onto a cup of flour on the counter and start kneading, adding more flour as I go, usually 6ish cups total. The dough is done when it can be kneaded without sticking to your hands too badly and the skin of it breaks and pocks when you push on it. That is a really poor description and I'm pretty sure that you shouldn't use the same words in a recipe as you might to describe disease, but there ya go; I did. 

Put the dough ball in an oiled bowl, cover with a towel and put on top of the refrigerator (that's what the old women do and they know stuff) or in an oven with a proof setting (what the young, hip women, like myself use). Let it rise until it basically doubles in size (30-60 minutes) then dump it onto a floured counter. Now your dough is ready to become about 15 dinner rolls, two loaves, or 20 cinnamon rolls. Shape the dough for your desired application and let rise another 30-60 minutes. Why such a large time frame? Remember the stars and attitude and humidity and all that jazz? It messes with the rise just like it messes with how much flour the liquid will soak up. Come on over anytime and I'll happily show you how, it really is easier than it seems!

Now, the creative part:

For cinnamon rolls: 

Gently roll out the dough into a large rectangle (roughly 16"x20") and slather it in softened butter or margarine. I mean, really slather, like twice as much as you think is enough. At least 1/2 cup, probably more, just don't tell your nutritionist. Then add about 1/2 pound (1/4 bag) of dark brown sugar (I'm sure brown sugar is healthy...) and a big time amount of cinnamon. We are cinnamon lovers here and use a lot, probably at least 2T, just sprinkle it all over. Go all the way to the edges! Then carefully roll up the dough, slice into about 1" slices and put in greased pans. I use a 9"x13" pan and put 15 in it and then put the rest in a loaf pan.

For hummus rolls:

I invented these today and I loved them. Paige hated them, Levi accepted them, Doug liked them. 

I rolled out the dough, but divided it - half for cinnamon, half for hummus. 

I sprinkled Colton's seasoning, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper over the dough, then layered hummus, spinach leaves, fresh cilantro, onions, and avocado chunks. If I had remembered that I had roasted tomatoes in the freezer, I would have added those. After I rolled and sliced, I topped them with chopped kalamata olives and italian dressing.

layering

rolling

post-rise, pre-bake

There you have it, what we eat. :-)