Broccoli Cheese Bake

Yum for broccoli! We like broccoli. I bought a seriously huge bag from Costco. I barely made a dent in it after this broccoli casserole and a couple nights of steamed broccoli. Note to self: Costco bags of broccoli are too big for normal consumption.

Going back into my childhood, I liked broccoli with "cheeze."  Since processed cheese is very high in sodium (and lots of artificial weird stuff) I don't like to eat it all that often. Thankfully, my kids aren't big fans of Velveeta. However, this is one of those traditions where I have to indulge myself every once in a while.

This was part of the Easter dinner feast. It was really salty and oozy and yummy. I'm pretty sure we negated any health benefits from the broccoli with all the "cheeze" and butter, but I enjoyed it immensely.

Ingredients
2 lbs broccoli, chopped
1 lb block Velveeta
3 T. butter
2 T. milk
6 Ritz crackers, crushed

Method
1. Microwave or steam broccoli until just tender. Set aside for now.

2. Melt Velveeta, butter and milk together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until smooth.

3. Combine broccoli and cheese in a 8" square baking dish. Spread out and top with crushed crackers.

4. Bake in 325F oven about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.



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Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Hello again my dear readers. It's springtime here and I'm finding more and more good produce at the stores. I found some adorable Brussels sprouts! They are essentially miniature cabbages that grow on stalks. I'm hoping to grow some in our garden this year!

I wanted to try something a little bit different. I recruited my daughter to help me make dinner. I told her to help put the sprouts in the pan and that she had to watch for bugs. She was very thorough and questioned almost every brownish spot she saw. As part of this experiment, I asked her to eat one raw. She did! My picky eater ate one whole raw Brussels sprout! What an accomplishment!

However, once I got out the onion, she lost interest. She did ask if I was crying (from the onion fumes) and looked deep into my eyes to see if I had any tears forming. Funny!

After stuffing the pan into the hot oven, I managed to heat up some ham and microwaved a huge sweet potato to make the meal. The lemony cheesy Brussels sprouts were a nice contrast to the salty ham. A little cinnamon, butter and agave syrup on the sweet potato rounded out the sweetness.

Ingredients
2 lbs fresh Brussels sprouts
1/2 a medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
2-3 Tablespoons Annie's Consorzio Roasted Garlic Olive Oil
1 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
1 sliced lemon
1/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese

Method
1. Wash and trim the Brussels sprouts. Slice in half lengthwise. Discard any buggy ones you find.
 
2. Toss sprouts with the garlic olive oil and lemon pepper seasoning. Spread in a 9x13 pan. Arrange the sliced onions on top.

3. Roast 10 minutes at 450F. Stir and return to oven for another 10 minutes or so. You want them to get tender with some roasty-toasty brown areas.

4. Place hot sprouts in a serving bowl. Squeeze some lemon juice all over, about half a lemon should do it unless you really like it lemony. Top with Romano cheese and serve warm.

Cranberry Glazed Ham

Easter time has come and gone yet again. Now, let me tell you something. Usually, I attempt to give up something for Lent, and fail miserably 3 days later. I gave up chocolate for Lent this year. This is not the first time that I've tried to give up chocolate, but it was the most successful time! I was really trying to eat healthier. There was one birthday party with marble cake that I could not resist. For the most part, I was very focused on what healthy things I could eat instead of chocolate. That sort of impaired my inspiration to cook and blog about food.  Now that I've survived the month+ without chocolate, I've managed to put together a few thoughts.

1. I am a chocoholic.
2. I don't have to eat all chocolate all the time.
3. I should only eat the really good chocolate in small quantities.
4. Chocolate will put me into a tailspin of eating. No Chocolate means I'm in better control of what I eat later in the day.
5. I really do like fruits and veggies, but I will neglect them if chocolate is an option.
6. I will enjoy my periodic binge and then return to a reduced-chocolate lifestyle.

Interesting, isn't it?  Also, Easter morning, I overloaded on candy and my tummy immediately let me know just how unhappy it was. So now that I have binged on Easter candy, it's time to re-examine our eating patterns. I'm thinking it's just time to cut back on certain unhealthy things. And with the weather warming up, it's a good time to get active in general.

My Easter dinner with the family was fairly balanced. We had ham, which is traditional for us, mashed potatoes (but no gravy), broccoli smothered in cheese sauce, French bread, applesauce, and chocolate cake for dessert.

I found a lovely ham for us. It was smoked and pre-cooked. I was looking for a ham recipe and realized there are raw hams out there. This is not a recipe that will work on a raw ham. Maybe if you boil or slow-roast it, then you can do the glaze at the end. Just know, this is for a cooked ham that you would heat and serve.

Ingredients
1 medium sized smoked ham, mine was 10 lbs
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 to 1/3 cup Ocean Spray cranberry jelly (or more or less based on ham size)

Method
1. Score ham diagonally. Cover with foil and bake in oven for 1 1/2 hours at 325F.

2. Combine the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan. Over low heat, melt them until gooey and spreadable.

3. Slather the glaze mixture over the ham. Return to oven, uncovered, for another 30-45 minutes.

 
4. You can call it done when the outside is crusty and delicious.

5. Carve up the ham and enjoy!