Baby Approved Hot Pumpkin Lava Bomb Baozi

Yes, my sweet baby girl Shastya did quality control on the pumpkin filling for these luscious baozi. Daddy came home early today because of a snow day/ state of emergency in South Carolina which consisted of perhaps 1 inch of snow so I decided to make an early supper. Shastya as usual enjoyed the cooking show from her little baby chair in the kitchen.

Pumpkin Baozi:

1 Cup Room Temp Water

3 Cups Self-Rising Flour

1 Can Pumpkin

1 Tb Molasses

1 Tsp Cinnamon

1. Combine water and flour in bread machine canister. Hit dough setting.

2. Stir pumpkin, molasses, and cinnamon together in small bowl.

3. Divide dough into eight pieces. Fill with Pumpkin filling.

4. Steam for 20 minutes on low heat after water has been brought to a boil.

Orange Chicken Lite

This recipe is so easy and so quick. I was really hungry and decided to make this dinner because it is fast, fun, and healthy.

Orange Chicken Lite:

1 Cup Rice

2 Cups Water

A Few Dashes of Salt

3 Chicken Tenderloins

1/2 Cup Orange Juice

1 1/2 Tb Soy Sauce

1 Tb Flour

1. Bring rice, water, and salt to a boil. Cover and let heat on low for 15 minutes.

2. Cook 3 Tenderloins.

3. Mix orange juice, soy sauce, and flour. Pour this mixture over tenderloins and stir.

Buckwheat Kasha Pilaf With Soy Sauce

I first tried buckwheat kasha in Moscow, Russia. It was served with liver. I've made my own buckwheat kasha some occasionally in America. One time I prepared it for my husband Anthony. He did not like it. The rest of the box of kasha has been shifted around in our cupboards for quite sometime now and I finally decided to go ahead and prepare it. I wanted to make sure to dilute the flavor a little to make it more edible for Anthony. There are certain robust flavors that Anthony is not too fond of such as sauerkraut, or brussel sprouts, and including buckwheat kasha. I found that out real fast when we first married and I tried making him a classic Pennsylvania Dutch/ German meal. He did not enjoy it.

And so today, I cooked up an onion, some carrots, garlic, chicken, and kasha in a kind of riceless pilaf. We put soy sauce on top. The slight resemblance of pilaf reminded me of eating amazing pilaf in southern Ukraine. The soy sauce of course reminded me of our time in China.

Onion Orange Molasses Muffins

I asked Anthony what he wanted for supper. He asked me what the options were. I told him the first option was bread with corn in it and tomato soup. He said, "Oh, cornbread." I said, "No, bread with corn in it." He was like, "um, no." He said maybe orange muffins with tomato soup. Then I decided to add onion and molasses! And so onion orange molasses muffins came into being.

The muffins turned out fantastic. Anthony thought they tasted similar to onion bread and that the orange made them very moist. I thought the molasses gave them a pretty color as well. Anthony said he could see them accompanying a steak dinner. They were quite dignified muffins.

Onion Orange Molasses Muffins:

1 1/2 Tb Molasses

1/2 Diced Onion

1 Peeled and Chopped Orange

1 Egg Beaten

1/4 Oil

3/4 Milk

2 Cups Flour

2 Tsp. Baking Powder

1/4 Tsp. Salt

1. Simmer onion and orange in molasses on the stove.

2. Beat egg. Add oil and milk. Blend.

3. Dump flour, baking powder, and salt on top of wet ingredients. Blend.

4. Add simmered ingredients from stove.

5. Bake 19 min. at 400 degrees in lightly greased muffin pan. 

Spicy Noodle Baozi!

I made my favorite flavor of baozi for dinner tonight. That flavor was spicy noodle baozi. This was my first time coming up with a recipe for and making this type. They didn't turn out bad.

Spicy Noodle Baozi:

1 cup Water

2 3/4 cups Self-Rising Flour

3 cups Water

1/3 pkg. Rice Noodles

3 tsp. Red Pepper Flakes

4 Tb Soy Sauce

1/4 tsp. Chopped Garlic

First, I put the first two ingredients in the bread machine on the dough cycle.

Second, I boiled some water and red pepper flakes to soften them. I then added the noodles and a little soy sauce and garlic. When the noodles were ready I drained them and then added some more soy sauce to them.

Third, I divided the dough into eight sections, and stuffed those with spicy noodles. I steamed these in two batches for around twenty minutes each on low heat.

Steamed Bread With Molasses Sweetened Red Bean Paste Filling

Anthony and I ate a variety of steamed breads this past summer in Nanjing, China. Red bean was Anthony's favorite flavor. This evening I created my own recipe for steamed bread with red bean paste filling. 

I just used the dough setting on my bread machine to make the dough. Feel free to refer to some of my other posts about steamed breads for more info about making them: Vegetable Filled Steamed Bread, Chinese Dumplings And Baozi, and Anthony's Favorite Chinese Food: Baozi!

For my filling, I drained and mashed a can of red beans. I added granulated sugar and then molasses. The molasses improved the color, texture, and taste of my filling. Not to mention, it was fun to throw in an American southern ingredient.

Steamed Bread With Molasses Sweetened Red Bean Paste Filling:

1 cup Water

2 3/4 cups Self-Rising Flour

1 can of Red Beans

2 1/2 Tb Granulated Sugar

2 1/2 Tb Molasses

Pasta With Creamy Sweet Potato Sauce

This is a very quick and easy supper to throw together. Just boil your pasta while your sauce is simmering on the stove. Strain your pasta. Add it and the room temperature sweet peas to your sauce. Stir and serve!

Pasta With Creamy Sweet Potato Sauce:

2/3 Box of Vegetable Rotini

Leftover Savory Sweet Potato Soup

1 1/3 Cans of Sweet Peas

(On a side note, I had to open a second can of sweet peas because I ate 2/3 of the first can while I was cooking my pasta and sauce!)

Succotash Pie

I made succotash pie and side salads for dinner. Upon tasting the pie I knew it had to be too good to be low-fat. I immediately arose from the table to check the refrigerated pie crust box label. Yep, it had more fat than the Ranch salad dressing Anthony was using on his salad. I decided to save half of my portion of the pie for tomorrow so that I did not eat too much saturated fat in one sitting.

I questioned Anthony as to what he thought of the meal. I thought the pie was amazing and I loved the crunchy romaine lettuce. It was quite edible even without salad dressing. To my pleasant surprise, Anthony said that he does not usually like succotash but that it was pretty good tucked inside the pie pastry. I began to lightly chide him saying that he was a southerner, how could he not like succotash? I said my Gramma liked to make succotash and would put sausage in it. He said his Mom had made it too.

Succotash Pie:

1 Pie Crust

1 can of Succotash