It's Friday morning of Week One.
Friday morning I like to serve hot cereals. Not all my kids are fans of hot cereal, so when they were little I always made a sweet roll of some sort as a reward for eating it. The tradition stuck even though now my kids are okay with eating hot cereal.
Tonight we are going to be having dinner early so we can get to the HS Football game to watch our favorite cheerleader perform at the game (our daughter, of course).
Tonight's menu is a fun Ham, Swiss and Braid. It's really tasty and quick to eat. When I was a kid I only had a taste for mild cheeses like Colby, American or mild Cheddar. But now I love the flavors of a wide variety of cheeses - Swiss is one of my favorites. I love how it pairs with salty ham and the Dijon mustard in this dish. The flaky crust is the perfect contrast to the cheese, ham and broccoli filling.
Dessert doesn't always have to be something that takes a long time or even any skill to make. The kids are going to be excited to see the mud cups waiting for them! Chocolate pudding, Oreos and Gummy Worms. A kid's delight! (Not to mention my husband's!)
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| Malt-O-Meal and Caramel Rolls |
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| Ham, Swiss & Broccoli Braid and Mud Cups |
Breakfast:
Making Malr-O-Meal doesn't take long. It's one of my favorite hot cereals, I like the texture and flavor and it's high in iron. I've often struggled with anemia so the iron content is a bonus.
But it's best very warm and gets thick and less appetizing as it gets cold. So I always make it at the last minute. So I make the caramel rolls first.
CARAMEL ROLLS
1. Turn the oven on to 375 degrees. In a round (about 10 inch size) cake pan, put half a cube of butter and place it in the oven to let it melt.
2. Once the butter is melted, take it out of the oven and put in a cup of brown sugar and a 1/4 cup of maple flavored syrup. Put it back in the oven to let it turn into a syrup.
3. After the brown sugar has dissolved some and the syrup has warmed, take it out of the oven and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved and it looks like a caramel syrup.
4. Open a package of refrigerator biscuits. Slightly flatten each biscuit and place it on top of the caramel syrup. After all the biscuits are arranged over the caramel, put it in the oven and bake for 7-9 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits are turning golden brown.
5. Take the biscuits out of the oven. Put a large plate or platter over the top of the pan and then carefully flip it over so that the cake pan with the biscuits is upside down on the plate/ platter. Carefully lift the cake pan off the biscuits leaving the biscuits on the plate /platter.
6. The caramel syrup will coat the biscuits and will be burning hot, so let cool a few minutes. But eat warm. ENJOY!
MALT-O-MEAL
1. For 6 servings: Boil 1 3/4 cup water with a teaspoon salt in a medium size saucepan.
2. When the water is boiling, very slowly pour 1 cup of Malt-O-Meal into the boiling water while whisking. Whisk well and pour slowly to prevent lumps.
3. Let boil for a minute until it thickens.
4. Serve sweetened with honey or brown sugar and cinnamon. ENJOY!
Dinner:
This dish is both fun and tasty. When I put it on the table, my youngest son said, "Oh, I love this dinner!" Which made me happy.
1. First cook the broccoli. I don't actually measure the broccoli, I just use an amount that seems good to me. So first, chop off the broccoli florets into a microwave safe bowl, put in a little water, cover with saran wrap and cook until just tender.
(It takes about 6-8 minutes on high in my microwave).
2. While the broccoli is cooking, chop the onion and cut the Swiss cheese into small cubes.
3. When the broccoli is done, strain it in a colander. Dump the cheese and onion on top of the broccoli. Then put the diced ham on top. Mix it all together.
(Sometimes I use a real ham and cube it but this time I bought ham that was already julienned and ready to use.)
4. Grease a large cookie sheet. Open 2 cans of refrigerator crescent rolls. Don't separate them into the triangles, lay them horizontally on the pan right next to each other. Press with your fingers or use a rolling pin to press the seams together so that you have one large piece of dough on the sheet.
5. With a knife, make horizontal cuts all along the long edges one inch apart - going from the long edge and stopping about 1/3 of the way in. Do this along both sides so that there is an uncut portion down the center.
6. Squirt Dijon mustard down the center and spread it so that there is a thin layer across the uncut dough.
7. Dump the broccoli, onion, ham, cheese mixture on top of the mustard and spread it evenly down the center.
8. Layer (braid) the cut pieces over each other, starting at one end and overlapping the ends of the pieces to form a pattern over the filling and hold it in.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees or until golden brown.
10. Serve in slices. ENJOY!
Dessert:
Everyone in my family loves pudding..and oreos...and gummy worms. So they love mud cups. I usually use mini-pie crusts (or graham cracker tarts). But today I decided to go all Oreo - and I bought chocolate oreos so the filling is chocolate. These will be good!
1. Lay out 6 ramekins or small dishes. Put 2 Oreos in a plastic bag and crush into crumbs, you may need to crumble it a little to break up the frosting. Then put it in the bottom of one of the ramekins.
Do this for 6 dishes.
2. Put 2 cups cold milk in a medium-smal size mixing bowl. Add in a 4-serving size chocolate pudding mix. Mix on med-low speed for 2 minutes.
3. Pour 1/2 cup of pudding into each ramekin on top of the crumbs.
4. Crush 3 more oreos in a plastic bag and use the crumbs to sprinkle on top of the pudding.
5. Put gummy worms (I used sour neon ones this time but regular are good too) into the cups - sticking into the mud (pudding) and dirt (oreo crumbs). Use however many you like.
6. ENJOY!
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