When life hands you chickpeas OR How to get your toddler to eat mushed up chickpeas

Today marks the beginning of spring break!! After playing Pictionary all day with my school kiddos in honor of the last day of school before spring break, I picked up Eli and Olivia from daycare.  Then we went to the bank and got quarters for laundry.  Then we stopped at the "Waterwagon" to get water for the house.  When we finally got home I had a vague idea in my head that I was going to make breakfast for supper.  While I was looking through the cabinet for inspiration on what type of breakfast supper to make, light shone down from heaven, angels sang, and I discovered a can of chickpeas in the back corner of the cabinet!!! AHA! I thought, time to make falafel!! So I dusted off the blender, dumped in the chickpeas, flour, lemon juice, spices, and... half an egg.  Yeah, half an egg.  The recipe I have for falafel calls for two cans of chickpeas and one egg.  Since I only had one can of chickpeas, I had to half the recipe, and I had to figure out how to half an egg.  So, half an egg later, I started blending.  Let me tell you, chickpeas and my blender are not a good combination.  Basically, the bottom half of the chickpeas blended and stuck to the side of the pitcher, while the top half of chickpeas sat motionless and unblended.  I had to stop and stir multiple times, and in the end I just dumped the slightly blended, lumpy mixture into a bowl and mushed the remaining chickpeas with a fork.  Eli and Olivia were hanging around the kitchen, looking up at me with hungry eyes and wondering what I was making for supper.  Wary of telling them what I was actually making (they are both picky preschoolers) I mysteriously whispered "faaalaafel!!!"
"OOOOOhhhh!! falafel!!" they cheered!
( Food tip #1--Preschoolers will think mushed up chickpeas are cool if you give them a cool name and whisper it in just the right tone of voice!)

Chickpeas mushed, and oil heated I rolled the falafel mix into balls and popped them into the hot oil to sizzle.  Approximately 5 minutes later... delicious crispy falafel!!!
Since I had half an egg and a pan full of hot oil left over after frying the falafel I decided to give funnel cakes a try.  I always see them at the fair, and I'm always jealous of the gluten-full people who can eat them.  So, I dumped some gluten free flours into the bowl, added a little bit of sugar, vanilla, and that half of egg.  Then I blended in enough milk to make a runny batter, and drizzled it into the hot oil.  I was a little nervous, imagining a doughy, greasy, mess stuck in the pan, but... the dough sizzled away and ended up perfect!!
 Funnel Cake and Falafel success!!

  

Colorful braising mix

Hi I'm Renee the middle sister. So I got a bag of braising mix from Full Circle once on accident. I had no idea what to do with it so I found this really yummy recipe online and then tweaked it a little. If you can't get braising mix then just chard or kale or any other cooking green will work fine.I have been adding apples to everything because I have some that need to be used but aren't good for snacks. You can also add things like radishes and walnuts. I figured out with the kids that if I add an apple and smoked paprika they like this dish a lot better. Also cutting the greens smaller makes it easier for them to eat.

1/2 lb greens
1 tbs olive oil (or any cooking kind)
1/2 onion diced
4 cloves garlic minced
1 medium carrot grated
1 apple grated
1/2-3/4 c. liquid (water, wine, broth)
1 cup frozen or 1 can corn
smoked paprika to taste
garlic salt to taste


Wash the greens and take out the hard middle stems. I cut them into little pieces but it works to just throw them in any size.



















Heat oil in a skillet or fry pan. Add onion, garlic, apple and carrot. (I didn't have a carrot this time)Cook until onions are tender.

Add the corn and cook for a few minutes.

Add about 1/2 c. liquid to start. I like using chicken broth.

Add the greens. If you are using big pieces then cover and let simmer until greens are wilted. Little pieces cook fine without covering.
Add smoked paprika and garlic salt and stir until combined. Then enjoy! I like putting mine over rice then rice doesn't need any extra seasoning.

Whole Wheat English Muffins

I made my own english muffins! I conquered another daunting baked item, one I thought would take numerous, heartbreaking tries...

but it worked great!

Thai Chicken Drummettes

Hi, it's Hazel, the youngest sister.
I have just started experimenting with our crockpot, so my first recipe uses one. I was always a little wary of crockpot cooking- seemed complicated and time consuming- but it is exactly the opposite!
So this recipe is based on one from the Pillsbury Best Slow Cooker Recipes Book, it turned out pretty good but if I did it again I would cut the soy sauce in half, at least. I did cut the whole recipe in half because our crockpot is small-ish and I am in a phase where I don't want tons of leftovers, especially when doing something I've never done before.

Thai Chicken Drummettes
2 lb chicken wing drummettes (you can buy a frozen bag at Walmart)
1/4 C soy sauce
1/4 C honey
1/4 C butter (I used half butter, half coconut oil)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon red curry paste
1 teaspoon chipolte chili pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon cilantro
2 2oz packages Planters cashews with the salt rinsed off (or just buy unsalted...)

The FUN part of this recipe for me was broiling the chicken until it's light brown. I put the chicken on a pan in the bottom of my oven, set it to broil, and set the timer...

Weeelllll, that's not how you use the broiler on my new stove (just moved here). My chicken was still frozen. So I looked around the oven, found where the big flames where, and relocated my chicken. Now things started getting crispy.

While my chicken was cooking I mixed everything up in a little bowl, I chose to put my cashews in to cook with the chicken because I like cooked nuts.
Sauce!

Then I just put everything in the crock pot on low for 4 hours! Easy once you figure out how to use your appliances.
Time for a drink!

Yummmmm

I made some roasted cauliflower (inspired by Renee) to go with the chicken.

Vegi Stew

So, based on the fact that they only vegis I had in the fridge today were a bag of potatoes and a bag of parsnips along with a few stragglers of different varieties (half bag of braising greens, one carrot, a big long broccoli stem..), I decided to make some vegi stew. I decided I'd try the recipe I used before for an italian moose roast in the slow cooker, only without the moose roast. So, I chopped up four or five potatoes, one large onion, four parsnips, and a whole head of garlic (just took the skin off and seperated the cloves). Added one handful of pepperoncinis, a generous sprinkle each of oregano and basil, a can of diced tomatoes and two cups of vegi broth and set to cook for 6 hours in crock pot. When I used this recipe to make the moose roast, I (according to recipe) made some slices in the meat and stuck ten cloves of garlic in the roast itself. So, maybe if you make it with meat, do it that way. When the six hours were up, I added a generous handful each of frozen green beans and frozen peas and just let those defrost in the warm slow cooker while I made some biscuits. Just regular old butter and flour biscuits. Not the healthiest thing, but whatever, I am out of flax, ect and biscuits go so well with a super healthy vegi stew. And both were delicious!
Rian and Lyla liked the stew. Gavin didn't even try it, he had two biscuits and leftover rice. But, overall it was a pretty cheap, easy and crowd-pleasing dinner. And another thing I like about this one is that there is plenty left over for Rian and I to eat for lunch tomorrow. I like to try to follow that cook once, eat twice rule.
If I had cremini mushrooms, they would have been so good in this recipe, also, definitely carrots next time. Oh. also, with about an hour left of cooking time, I added a big dish of leftover mixed beans that I had cooked yesterday (these were small red and giant lima, but any kind of bean would work, I think).

Welcome to the inagural flight of Barnard Bunch Recipes. My sister Renee's idea. Like the rest of my siblings, she is always coming up with good ideas!
Lets talk about our varied food restrictions that make our menu planning even more interesting....
So, I (Melissa) am currently trying to follow a whole food, plant based diet. I try to limit gluten and dairy because I suspect an allergy in my children and possibly in myself. I also strive to buy Organic and as Local as possible, Being in Alaska, this usually means grown in the Northwest, not necessarily in AK itself. The thing that is making this lifestyle very challenging at the time is that we are currently on a VERY tight budget! My husband works much less in the winter than in the summer and we are at the end of our summer savings so just trying to hold out till May at this point. I am a stay at home mom (who also babysits full time for some additional income) which gives me time to prepare more homemade things during the day.
Selena is diagnosed with Celiacs. She is a single parent who works full time as a junior high teacher! So, on top of her restricted diet options she also faces time constraints when preparing her menu. She also tries to limit her intake of meat and dairy products for health reasons.
Renee is a stay home mom of three all under 7yrs old. So, she has to keep in mind that her recipes must be kid friendly as well as healthy. Like Selena and I, she tries to follow a plant based, whole foods diet and like me, she tries to buy Organic when possible. Like me, she receives a box of Produce from Full Circle Farms once a week which we use as our produce when meal planning.
Hazel is a working girl with no kids yet. She lives with her boyfriend. They are focusing on using healthy oils and grains in their cooking. She does not follow a plant based diet. She is an excellent baker and creates delicious rich meals that we all love. She probably has the least restricted income of the sister when it comes to shopping for her groceries.
William is a the youngest and the only boy in our family. He is single with no children and in his early twenties. He works full time. He recently decided to try to follow a gluten free diet due to symptoms that look alot like Celiacs. He does not follow a plant based diet either so his recipes, like Hazels include plenty of meat and dairy.
So, that is our dietary outline in a nutshell. And so, we will be posting recipes as we come up with them, because sometimes we make something that is just SO good that we want to share. :)