Summer Recipe Contest Winners!

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Choosing winners was hard!  There were hundreds of recipes to sort through and  all of them looked delicious.

Before I tell you who our top 3 winners are–I want to thank my readers that have already sponsored Heidi or I on our 5K run to benefit the pro-life cause.  Your generosity has catapulted us to first place in fund raising! My free gift offer is still there until July 15th–you can get the details in the previous post. If you would like to donate for the gift, consider going to Heidi’s page. She gets so excited when she gets a sponsor and it just makes my day to see her so happy.

Now back to business.  Drum Roll Please…..

First place is Beth Nepote with her recipe for Greek Tortellini and Spinach Pasta Salad

Second place is Nicole Cotts with Mandarin Chicken Salad

Third Place is Mary Frank with Peppers and Spirals Salad

I will contact the winners tomorrow and reveal the recipes in their individual blog posts where we can get to know the author better.  Everyone who submitted a recipe is a winner in my book and will receive a copy of the ebook “Grocery Shrink Reader’s Summer Favorites.” With their recipe inside! The ebook is almost finished–somehow the Dessert portion of the book was erased…so I’ll be redoing that tomorrow.

 

Whole Fruit Popsicles

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It’s raging summer here and temperatures are expected over 100 degrees tomorrow and Thursday.  To get ready, we made some whole fruit popsicles.

I peeled whole kiwi (6) and sliced each into 3 pieces.  Inserted a stick (we used craft sticks and no one died or got sick.) and froze them on trays. I also found 6 ripe bananas, that we broke in half and froze too.

Then we melted 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips with 1/2 cup of coconut oil.  To make a really thin chocolate that hardens immediately on the cold fruit.

Then dipped each piece.

As the chocolate got shallower in the cup, we used a spoon to help.

We had just a touch of chocolate leftover and used it to drizzle designs on the finished pops.

Brandon somehow managed to get chocolate all over his white shirt--should have seen that one coming, lol.

The Kiwi popsicles were so cute–but pretty sour. The bananas are by far our favorite. Now I’m wondering…what other fruit can I put a stick in to freeze and dip?

Update on Summer Recipe Contest and Recipe for Crab Pasta Salad

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I know I had set the winner announcement deadline for June 15th.  That was crazy.  I didn’t expect so many wonderful entries to sort through or think about what it would mean to take a family of 8 on vacation for a week and get put back together after, while doing my regular chores and still getting my weekly menu subscriptions out on time.

So now you can be super impressed that I have gone through half of the contest entries and am getting them organized by type of dish to compile in a fun ebook.  Everyone who entered a recipe will get a free copy of the e-book–hooray for you!  I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

Until then, here’s a delicious Summer Recipe:

Crab Pasta Salad

1 bag–12-16 oz tri-color rotini pasta, cooked according to package directions

1 bag–16 oz frozen peas, thawed

1 red onion, finely chopped

2 large carrots peeled and shredded

6 slices turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled

(add any other veggies you like such as bell pepper, zucchini etc.)

1–8 oz package imitation crab meat, chopped

Combine all ingredients and mix with 1 cup ranch salad dressing (purchased or homemade–light works well.)  Chill.  Right before serving stir in another cup of dressing.)

For gluten free, replace the pasta with 6-8 cups of cooked and drained navy beans–or use a combo of beans, such as navy, great northern, pinto, or garbanzo.)

Summer Transformation Challenge and Checking In

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We are back from Reunion and I have some photos and video to post later from Heather’s baptism.  What a lovely, glorious day!  I’ve been busy catching up on laundry and housework since then.

I also joined Holly’s Summer Transformation Challenge (STC) over at Club FYM.  I love it over there and writing in my journal takes the place of some of why I write here.  So when I’m in a challenge with Fit Yummy Mummy, I tend to want to neglect my blog.  I’m going to try hard not to do that this time.  As part of that challenge I’m writing a meal plan for 1–that coincides with what my family is eating too.  Theirs has more carbs and calories since they are all skinny.  But we are all eating healthy.  Here’s my plan for this week:

You can click on the image to see it bigger if the print is hard to read. PI stands for Planned Indulgence.

Also new for me, I’ve started teaching a sewing class on Monday nights in my new office.  It’s great fun! And right now am working on sewing my fall jacket that I’ve had fabric and pattern for over a year and never made the time to make it. I’m using this from Fabric.com:

with this pattern:

 

Homemade Xanthan Gum–Fail

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I’m not gluten free, but a lot of my friends are.  So in my research to help my gluten free friends live happier, more frugal lives, I found an article on making xanthan gum at home.  Xanthan gum is not horribly expensive.  I bought a 1 lb bag at Amazon for $17.49.  But you only use a tsp or so per recipe, so it lasts a long time.

The flakes before pulsing to a powder.

Even then, I thought if you could make some at home for little effort, it might be worth a try.  So basically I mixed a little yeast and cornsyrup in a jar.  Shook it around for 5 days and then added a 1/4 tsp of vodka and then dried what was left.  It was an amber colored thick liquid, that dried into glasslike sheets.  I powdered the dried sheets in the blender and then compared it’s thickening ability to my purchased xanthan gum.

After Pulsing to a Powder

I added a 1/4 tsp of each to 1 cup of water and stirred and waited.  The commercial gum mixture got thicker and thicker the longer it sat.  The homemade did nothing.  I doubled the amount…still nothing.  I did notice the water felt slippery when rubbed between my fingers…. but still never thickened the water.

Homemade left; Commercial Right. Notice in the white mixture, you can see the xanthan gum absorbing water and swelling like gel beads. Nothing like that happened on the left.

I tried to follow the insructions very carefully and for now have PLENTY of commercial xanthan gum to use.  I love how it thickens a light salad dressing. I’m still playing around with it.

Homemade Xanthan Gum on the left. The two look nothing alike.

So has anyone made their own xantham gum successfully? Can you see what I did wrong?

Summer Recipe Contest!

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{If you are subscribed to my newsletter, then you are enjoying the subscriber only coupon good on any or all of my ebooks. If you aren’t subscribed yet, take care of that and I’ll send the code out again on Thursday.}

I’m having a contest!!!!

A Summer Recipe Contest

Send in your favorite warm weather recipes. It might be cold, cooked on the grill, use garden produce; or be frozen :). There are no special rules or restrictions. I may edit a recipe for health or ease so don’t be afraid to send in an old favorite that might not be as healthy as you wish it to be. Think about breakfasts; lunches; snacks and dinners that you enjoy when the temperature is hot outside. Enter as many recipes as you like.

Recipes will be judged on uniqueness, health, taste, and how appetizing they are for warmer weather.

I’m thinking of a phrase from a Sesame Street song:  “Don’t worry that it’s not good enough for anyone else to hear…just sing, sing a song.”

The recipe that you think someone else already sent in, or is too simple…may just be the winning recipe.  So don’t be afraid to enter, let me sort it out :).

Prizes:
1st place–a year’s subscription to Grocery Shrink Plus; A complete Grocery Shrink ebook set for you or a friend; and a handmade magnetic envelope system from DivvyUP AKA Allison Dixon. You can see her Etsy Store here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/DivvyUp?ref=seller_info She has a genious idea here.
2nd Place–A year’s subscription to Grocery Shrink Plus and a Complete Grocery Shrink Ebook set.
3rd Place–A Complete Grocery Shrink Ebook set
The Fine Print:
I’ll accept contest entries from now until June 10th at midnight. Winner’s will be announced June 15th.
To enter: Send your receipe with the subject line: Summer Recipe Contest to angela@groceryshrink.com
Be sure to include your full name and email address and any interesting notes about the origination of the recipe.
Do not copy a recipe word for word from another source, but any recipe you have adapted or tweaked in some way is fair game.
Any recipes submitted may be used on my blog or in a weekly menu with credit back to you.

Mulberries

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The kiddoes are picking mulberries off our tree in the back garden. They got about a quart with more to ripen soon. I’m trying to post a photo from my phone. Crossing my fingers that the wordpress app will work this time.

image

Low Carb Burger

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My In-laws came down several weeks ago to help us work on the back garden of the house we are trying to sell.  Dad offered to go and get low-carb burgers for everyone from Hardees because I had no food or dishes to cook with in the vacant house.  It was delicious!  It was basically a large beef burger between huge stacks of lettuce instead of a bun.  I didn’t miss the bun at all!  When I got home, I looked up the calorie content to record in my journal and was floored!  It may have been low carb, but it stil had 36 g of fat and 470 calories!  They had so much mayo on it to more than make up for the lack of bun.

A few weeks later I decided to try my own version of the low-carb burger and see if I could get the calories under control. Every bit as tasty…with about 200 fewer calories.

I started with a lean  Jennie-O Turkey burger pattie, cooked with garlic salt on the Foreman grill. I lighted spread it with reduce fat mayo.  Then topped with 3/4 oz of thin sliced cheese, ketchup, red onion, mustard, and pickles.  Then wrapped the whole thing in huge romaine lettuce leaves.  It was less than 300 calories and sooo good.  Definitely will be doing this again!

 

Cinnamon Soft Pretzels

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The Grocery Shrink Plus menus take most of my free time to write these days, but it’s so much fun! The ladies over at our facebook group are amazing and often take pictures of what they cook and share with the rest of us. Last Friday the snack was cinnamon soft pretzels.  Nicole posted this picture on her facebook page:

Baking and photo by Nicole Cotts

Pretty soon she was fielding a bunch of requests for the recipe :).  Nicole, these look fantastic.  Way to go! And for your friends, here’s a printable snapshot of the recipe :).  Click on the photo below to enlarge and print.  As a plus, I took this snapshot from an actual page of the menus so you can get a feel for how they are set up.  If you like it, find out more at the “Menus”tab above.

Smoothie Concentrate

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Smoothies are a great way to get in fruit and veggie servings plus protein. And in the warmer months, this lovely cold thick meal can’t be beat. (I mean, really, it’s like having ice cream for breakfast.)

Now fresh smoothies are easier than ever before, with homemade concentrate.

It’s easier to start with fresh or thawed fruit, since it blends up faster with less wear on the blender.  I used mango chunks from Dollar Tree, ripe bananas, and a can of pineapple in juice.

Blend.

Pour into muffin cups and freeze. (That’s Grants baby finger.  He can’t wait to have some!)

 After a couple of hours, you can unmold them and place in a freezer bag.  To use, mix 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup greek yogurt, and 2 smoothie cups (cut into 4ths) in a blender until smooth.  I like to add my frozen bits a little at a time.  I burned up my motor one time throwing in too much frozen at once.

These smoothie cups are also delicious just eaten plain and would make fantastic popsicles too. Think about the possibilites!  If you like green smoothies, this is a great way to use up all your spinach before it goes bad.