Office Lunchtime Win

Ramen noodles (without the flavor packet) + Erin’s Peanut Sauce + leftover Golden Sesame Tofu from Whole Foods.

A Hilarious Recipe for Easy Beets

If you know me, you know that I enjoy beets. But long before I realized how much I loved beets, I loved puns. And once, way back when, I decided that one day I would come up with a recipe for something I could call “Block Rockin’ Beets.” Today’s the day!

You’ll need:
• Two cans of canned beets
• olive oil
• freshly ground pepper
• some thyme
• Kosher salt
• a baking sheet

Instructions:
1. Open the cans and drain the beets into a strainer. Be careful if you have a white sink, as I do.
2. Dump the beets onto a baking sheet. Pour some olive oil on them.
3. Sprinkle on some salt, pepper, and thyme.
4. Mix it all together with your hands or a utensil so that they are somewhat evenly coated. Spread the beets out so that there’s as much beet surface area touching the sheet as possible.
5. Bake at 350 degrees until they achieve the desired amount of crusty roastedness. Try and flip them once about halfway through. I usually leave them in for at least 40 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

My Peanut Sauce or, Best Quick Dinner Ever

1. Scoop some chunky peanut butter (about a tablespoon) out of a jar. Plop the PB in a bowl.

2. Pour about two tablespoons’ worth of your favorite orangey/gingerey type salad dressing (I use Price Chopper’s Central Market brand Mandarin Ginger Vinaigrette – has just 2 1/2 grams of fat per serving!) atop the peanut butter.

3. Microwave for about 20 seconds (or less; my microwave is unusually small and old.)

4. Stir together the peanut butter and dressing until they combine. Add more salad dressing until you reach the consistency that works best with whatever food you’re using it on. I usually mix the dressing with freshly cooked (i.e. still warm) noodles: I used to always use soba noodles but recently discovered that you can get much the same effect with – drumroll, please – Great Value* whole wheat thin spaghetti.

*for the uninitiated, Great Value is the Walmart store brand. Holla!

Cereal Killer

So this was the first time I ever made Rice Krispies Treats. Now I know why. It was about as much fun as … I don’t know … eating leather. I let loose a few choice words while I was working on them.

Nevertheless, I share my exploits with you, gentle reader, because they ended up quite sickeningly tasty and because they look quite nice once you clean all the goopy mess off your hands and everything else.

Here’s the recipe I used. It’s a simpler and less gross-sounding version of this one that I found on About.com the other day after a co-worker said “they should make candy corn cereal.”

Crispy Halloween Treats

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• butter for pan and hands
• 10 cups “crispy rice cereal” (uh, that’s Rice Krispies)
• 9 cups miniature marshmallows
• 2 cups candy corn

Butter a large jelly roll pan. In my case, I used one of the awesome big aluminum pans I always call a cookie sheet but really isn’t that my mom’s friend, a school lunch lady, let us put in with the order when the caf ordered new ones. In a pretty big saucepan melt butter and marshmallows on medium heat; stir them constantly until smooth. In an enormous bowl – I’m not kidding here, you’re going to need a tub or something – mix “crispy rice cereal” and candy corn. Add the disgusting marshmallow mixture to the cereal mixture; stir quickly to combine. Spread the mixture on prepared jelly roll pan and press with your buttered hands if you aren’t too grossed out. Let them sit on the kitchen table until you finish washing the dishes, about one hour, then cut into small squares.

I know! The last time I had that much fun in the kitchen, I was two years old and on my way to the hospital to get stitches in my head from hitting it on a drawer pull. Yeah. That’s more like it.

Cornflake Girl

So I had to make these homemade granola/energy bars for work. It sounded a little gross to me (the recipe calls for cornflakes and something called "apple butter" which up till now I was unacquainted with), it looks even grosser, but it actually tastes OK. A little too sweet for my tastes, but it's "healthy" and I can see where kids would like it and parents would feel good serving it to them because it's homemade.

Here is a link to the recipe: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Granola-Fruit-Bars

One more note: After I cut them, I had to kind of form them into a bar shape with my hands. That, too, was kind of gross. This photo is what they looked like up close, before I cut them out of the pan.