Dinner in an Hour (well pretty close) :)

Here was our dinner tonight:


 


 


 


Split Pea Soup with bacon


Tossed Green Salad w/blue cheese dressing


Buttermilk Biscuits


Cantaloupe


 


Sierra was my kitchen helper tonight.  She is 11 years old and quite handy in the kitchen.  It is nice to be able to serve a healthy, tasty meal to my family in a fairly short amount of time.  Granted I could have opened boxes and packages of food and maybe had dinner sooner, but I would have lost lots of quality and probably spent more $$ than I did.


 


Here is how we put this dinner together in an hour (it may have been an hour and 15 minutes)..


 


I started the split peas cooking and once they were boiling I cut up about 4 slices of bacon an ½ an onion and fried that till it was crispy.  I added this to the soup.  Then I had Sierra gather the salad veggies and begin making the salad.  While she was making the salad I made the salad dressing.  When that was done I started making the biscuits and she then cut up the cantaloupe.  While she was cleaning up her area and the counter tops I cut out the biscuits.  We both finished washing and drying the bigger dishes and the smaller things went in the dishwasher.


 


Ta Da!! We were done!


 


Amazing what team work can do!!


 


Here were my recipes:


 


Split Pea Soup


The basic ratio is 1 cup split peas to 4 cups water


1 t. salt for every cup of split peas


 


I used 3 cups organic split peas and 12 cups water and 3t salt.  Then added the chopped and cooked bacon and let this simmer and cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally.


 


Salad was made with the veggies I had on hand:


 


Romaine lettuce


Red cabbage


Tomatoes


Mushrooms


Cucumber


 


I made blue cheese dressing:


 


Blue Cheese Dressing


Crystal Miller


 


½ cup each: mayonnaise, sour cream, crumbled blue cheese


Mix this up and add:


1T white wine vinegar


1t minced garlic


 


Biscuits were a quick throw together..


 


I cut the following recipe in half as my older girls are not home and I did not want to mess with a lot of leftovers.  Half a recipe fills a 9x13 pan


 


These biscuits are very tender and flaky..  a few tricks if you have not had success with whole wheat biscuits are:


 


~ to not over knead the dough.. 


~make sure the butter is cold when you add it


~pat your dough, don’t roll it out


~leave the dough on thick side, thicker than if you were making white flour biscuits


~don’t twist your biscuit cutter when cutting them out


~if possible, use freshly ground wheat (you will need to add a little more flour than what the recipe calls for if you are using freshly ground flour)


~bake them close together, sides touching.. 


 


Buttermilk Biscuits for a Crowd (made with buttermilk powder)


Crystal Miller


 


6 cups whole wheat pastry flour


3T baking powder


2T Sucanat


2t baking soda


2t salt


9T buttermilk powder


1 cup butter


2 to 2 ¼ cups cold water


 


Mix together all dry ingredients.  Add water to and mix.  Turn dough out on floured counter and knead.  Divide dough in half and pat out.  Using a biscuit cutter or juice glass cut out biscuits and lay them in a large jelly roll size baking dish or two smaller size pans.  Repeat with other half of dough.  Bake at 450 for 15 minutes or until golden brown.


 


No dessert was made… none was really needed!  Everyone left the table full and happy   and I have enough food leftover to send with hubby tonight for work.  An added bonus to the meal was the fact that it was very economical to make! 


 

Comments

  1. Looks yummy!

    Looks like meals we eat.

    I miss ya!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have not tried whole wheat biscuits before. I would like to try them, but I have heard from others that it was very difficult! I will try your technique!

    Thanks!

    Blessings,

    Chas

    ReplyDelete
  3. My family loves split pea soup, but I have never tried it with bacon! I always use ham, so next time we have it I will have to try it with bacon. Your set up looks wonderful, making me so hungry. I have an 11 year old son who is a wonder in the kitchen also, a true blessing. Thanks for the recipes, I am going to save them for later. And the canteloupe could be considered dessert I think!!

    Melanie

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your dinner looks great!It is so nice you have a little helper to get things together faster.


    ReplyDelete

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