Very Veggie Fried Rice

Welcome to another Park family favorite dinner.  We love this veggie fried rice.  My kids can eat this by the bowls and it makes me so happy knowing all the veggies they've just consumed.  I love all the colors and it really is so easy to prepare and make.  It might just take a little bit of time dicing everything up but besides that it's a snap.  It's a great recipe if you need to use up some leftover rice.  Or the next time you're making rice - make a few extra cups and bam - even better and easier.

Very Veggie Fried Rice

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

3-4 cups cooked rice, white or brown

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 cup carrots, diced small

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/2 cups broccoli florets, diced small

3/4 cup red bell pepper, diced small

4 eggs

3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed

3/4 cup frozen corn, thawed

4 tablespoons soy sauce, more or less to taste

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add carrots, onions, garlic and ginger and sauté 3 minutes.  Reduce heat to medium and add broccoli and bell pepper and sauté until veggies are soft, about 3 minutes.  Move veggies over to one side of the pan, crack eggs into opposite side (add a little more oil if needed before adding eggs) and scramble and cook through.  Stir cooked rice, peas, corn, soy sauce and sesame oil and cook and toss until all has warmed through.  Serve warm.

Note: It seems to work out best if you make the rice enough in advance that it has time to chill before you add it to this recipe.  However, I have made this recipe many a times not having leftover rice on hand or forgetting to make my rice earlier in the day or even the day before and it still turns out great every time.  You may just want to let it stir fry a little longer at the end to make sure all the moisture has been absorbed.  

Recipe Source: adapted slightly from cookingclassy.com

Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies - Egg Free

I know it's springtime but sometimes you just have to have Pumpkin Chocolate Chips Cookies, no matter what the season.  That's been me the last two weeks.  I love these cookies because they are actually chewy - not so cakey like most pumpkin cookie recipes tend to be. Although I do love a good cake.  But by replacing the egg(s) with pumpkin these cookies turn out more chewy!  And soooo delicious.  I know springtime is in the air, but so are these cookies.  :)  Give 'em a try with a glass of cold milk.  I'm pretty sure you'll love them!

Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 2 dozen

Ingredients

1/2 (1 stick) cup butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

5 tablespoons pumpkin puree

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (unbleached preferred)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, using an electric beater, combine the butter and sugars until well combined.  Add the vanilla and pumpkin and beat until smooth.

In a smaller bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together then add to the butter mixture and stir with a large spatula or wooden spoon until just combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop cookie balls onto a baking stone (what I use to bake all my cookies) or a greased cookie sheet for 12-17 minutes or until they start to puff up a little.  Cool slightly before removing from sheet and placing on a cooling rack. 

Recipe Source: adapted from yammiesnoshery

Spaghetti Carbonara

My two older boys love noodles.  They would eat plain noodles every night for dinner if I let them.  Since I want them to have more nutrients than just plain noodles every night, when I saw this recipe I thought I would give it a try.  A nice compromise - lots of noodles but with bacon, eggs, peas and cheese tossed in the mix.  It was a success!  They downed this dinner and both asked for seconds.  High-fives across the table!  A 30-minute dinner added to the Park cookbook.  I love it!  

So I'm running my first 10K race tomorrow.  I started getting nervous as I drove past the race course today and saw them setting up.  The butterflies are still going strong as I type this up and think about tomorrow morning.  This dinner would make a great night-before-pre-race meal... very carb-rich.  Good luck to you with dinner tonight and good luck to me tomorrow morning.  We've got this. Another round of high-fives across the table!   

Spaghetti Carbonara
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients
6 slices bacon, chopped
1 pound spaghetti
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup frozen peas
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried parsley or 2 tablespoons fresh

Directions
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.

While waiting for the water to boil, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the bacon and cook until browned and crisp.  Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate and set aside.

Once the water begins to boil add the spaghetti.  Cook according to the directions on the package.

Return the skillet to the stove over medium heat (if there is more than 1 tablespoon of bacon fat in the skillet, drain it first).  Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft and translucent, about 3 minutes.  Set aside.

In a bowl, beat the eggs well with a fork.  Season with the salt and pepper.

Two minutes before the spaghetti is done, add the peas.  Reserving 1/2 cup of the boiling water, drain the spaghetti and peas in a colander then return to the still-hot pot.  Immediately add the eggs, reserved 1/2 cup water and onions.  Toss well to coat the spaghetti (the heat from the noodles will cook the eggs as they coat the spaghetti).  Sprinkle with the Parmesan, bacon and parsley and toss well again.

Serve with additional salt and pepper, if desired.

Recipe Source: Adapted slightly from: Golub, Joanna Navaho.  Runner's World: Meals on the Run, 150 energy-packed recipes in 30 minutes or less. Rodale, 2015. Print.

Soft and Chewy Granola Bars

I really like how these homemade granola bars don't fall apart.  I've tried a couple of different recipes and the ingredients just don't hold together as good as these ones do.  I also really like how you can control the texture with these bars.  You can make them extra crunchy or really smooth.  They're really easy to make and I like seeing a stash of them in my freezer so I know when I get that afternoon snack urge I can grab one and not be tempted to open the box of Oreo's.  They're really filling, dense, thick and soft and make a great grab-and-go snack.  They also have this power of leaving you with a "I'm really proud of myself for making homemade granola bars" feeling.  You should try it.  It'll make you happy.

Soft and Chewy Granola Bars

Yield: 10 bars 

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats (old fashioned or quick or a mixture of both)

2 cups pretzels, crushed down to about 1 heaping cup

1/2 cup salted peanut halves

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup honey, pure and raw recommended

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Toss the oats, crushed pretzels and salted peanut halves together in a large bowl.  I like to take half of this mixture and pulse it in my food processor until it's really smooth.  Then I stir it back into the large bowl.  If you want your bars really crunchy you can leave this step out.  If you want your bars really smooth you can pulse all of it - although I've never done this before so I'm not 100% positive how that would turn out.

Stir the peanut butter, honey and vanilla together in a separate bowl until smooth and creamy.  Pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and stir until combined.

Press the mixture into a 9x9-inch pan lined with parchment paper and freeze for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, lift the mixture out of the pan using the parchment paper and cut into bars.  I find it makes a nice, even 10 bars but you can make them smaller or larger according to how you like.  Wrap each bar individually in saran wrap and store in the freezer.  

Note: You want to make sure you really like the brand of your pretzels, peanuts and peanut butter because you can really taste their flavors.  You can also add more peanut butter or honey if your mixture seems to dry or crumbly or you can add more oats or pretzels if the mix seems too heavy.  I haven't had to do either because the above amounts have worked great for our family.  This recipe is a granola bar base - feel free to add more mix-ins if you'd like. 

Recipe Source:  Adapted slightly from pinchofyum.com