Kids in the Kitchen: Ham and Cheese Roll-Ups

I stole two kids for the weekend.

I don't have any of my own yet, so I need to borrow them in the meantime.

Thankfully, my goddaughter's mother is a very trusting woman, so I have my goddaughter and her little sister for three whole days.

Today was their first day here and we made dinner together.

I saw a commercial for these a few days ago using crescent rolls, so I added ham and the crescents to the shopping list. It's a really simple recipe, perfect for little helpers.

It's also really easy to change it up based on personal preference. You can change lunch meats, cheeses, or even add spreads, herbs and spices, or vegetables to your liking.

You will need:
2 cans of crescents (mine were 8 piece low fat)
16 pieces of cheese
16 pieces of ham (mine was reduced sodium and fat)

Have all the little helpers go wash their hands. While they're busy doing this, get the different components ready. I had each ingredient separate and ready for easy assembly once the kids got involved.

I assembled one and had them watch. After that, we took turns with each girl making her own roll-up and putting it on the baking sheet until we ran out of ingredients.

Pre-heat the oven to 375° and bake for about 12-15 minutes, watching closely because they start to brown quickly.

I served us with baby carrots and hummus on the side. Johnny loved them. He sat between the girls because they argued who got to sit next to him. (Nobody argued over sitting next to me...)

They were both really excited to eat the dinner that they made. Johnny and I made sure to tell them how good they tasted and what a good job they did. Both mentioned it was the best dinner and the best night a few times while eating.

In fact, they ate so well, both girls got to have a small bowl of ice cream. They gave dinner and dessert thumbs up! :)

Smashed Green Onion Potatoes

I saw this last week on Fight the Fat Foodie and told Scott it called to me! I put the ingredients on the grocery list and made it immediately, despite not being a major potato fan.

5 medium red potatoes, cut in eighths
~10 stalks green onions (aka scallions)
~ 3 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 450°. Spread the green onions on a baking sheet, brush with 1/3 of the oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 10 minutes, turning once. Remove from oven and coarsely chop.

Toss the potatoes in the remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes, turning once. After the potatoes have cooked through and browned, remove from the oven and combine in a bowl with the green onions. With a potato masher, smash roughly to burst the potatoes, but not enough to turn them into mashed potatoes. Add more salt and pepper if desired.

This is one of those dishes with so few ingredients, but such a blast of flavor you won't believe it. I love dishes like these because I think it shows the art of appreciating an ingredient and coaxing the depth of its natural flavor out. Apparently, smashing potatoes with other ingredients is a favorite preparation method of Jacques Pepin - so you know you can trust it!

There is no butter or milk, but they still had such a fluffy, creamy texture. The outsides were crisp and browned and roasted, while the inside like clouds. Johnny and I thoroughly enjoyed them and the oniony bite from the scallions.

We had them with ham and frozen peas for a well-rounded dinner. I utilized the leftover potatoes and ham by making a frittata for another night's dinner. We still enjoyed the great roasted flavor profile, just in a different limelight.

Sushi Style Ham Rolls

Wow, I started a new semester yesterday and I am worried about the next 8 weeks! My two professors this semester are both giving the impression of real hard-balls! Both have the strictest schedules I've seen since I started school again and huge research paper assignments on the syllabus. Yikes! At least it'll be nicer weather outside because it really helps me to be able to do a lot of reading on the patio or lounging in a lawn chair! It also helps my tan, too!

I got this recipe from the Philadelphia Cream Cheese web site because it looked really interesting. Of course I made some changes!

6 or 12 slices deli ham (*See notes below)
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cup leftover cooked rice
1/4 cup thin pepper strips
1/4 cup thin cucumber strips

Divide the cream cheese and rice into six even portions. Spread a slice of (*rectangle shaped) ham to the edge with the cream cheese. Top with the rice, gently pushing in to adhere it to the cream cheese. Place two or three strips of the peppers and cucumbers at the short end of the ham slice and roll up tightly. (*If your ham cracks or is sliced too thin, roll using 2 layers of ham.)

Cut each roll into 5 pieces and serve as an appetizer, lunch, or light dinner. We ate this as a light dinner since we had eaten a late lunch that day. It took only a few minutes to whip each one up with very little mess!

These actually reminded me of real sushi, surprisingly! The rice and crisp bite from the peppers and cucumbers were correct, while the saltiness from the ham was reminiscent of the saltiness of seafood and soy sauce.

Tips:

• To make ahead and serve later, make each roll and then wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Store in the fridge and slice just before serving.
• For brighter colors feel free to use red, orange, or yellow peppers. The green ones were on sale, so I chose those.
• If you have kids, make sure you let them help out! The assembly of these is pretty straight forward and leaves little room for great mess or error!
  

Potato Pancakes

For those of you with dairy allergies, you might be surprised to learn that the Kosher foods aisle might have some safe options for you!

Because of certain Jewish dietary laws, dairy has to be kept completely separate from meats, so Kosher food is labeled very accurately. I personally feel most secure in certified Kosher foods saying they are dairy free above all other foods and labels, which sometimes sneak in an ingredient here or there, or call it by a different name. I can't take advantage of "short-cut" items often (like something pre-made or boxed) but when I do, it is often from the Kosher section. (I still read the label to double check, though!)

Tonight I took a little help from a delicious box mix for potato pancakes. I am sure these do not even begin to compare to the Latke Queen's, but for a weeknight meal they work in our house!

After mixing with two eggs and some water, you let the mixture sit for about five minutes to firm up some. The texture was sort of like a loose polenta.

Drop by tablespoons into the vegetable oil and fry until golden on both sides.

I might have eaten four five six a few while the batches were cooking up! The ingredient list is short and sweet, but the flavor packed into these is terrific! I especially loved the edges that got really crisp and toasted! Heavenly!


I served these completely Kosher potato pancakes with ...

uh, well ...

see ...

oh heck - I served them with HAM!!!

Chicken Cordon Bleu

I'm so glad I saw Biz's chicken cordon bleu earlier today! I hadn't thawed anything for our dinner and Johnny's co-worker was coming over. I was afraid I'd have to go outside in rainy, freezing weather just to grab one or two items at the grocery store. After seeing this, I grabbed chicken from the freezer and knew I had leftover ham in the fridge and cheese from my mom's trip to Italy. Perfect!

5 thin sliced chicken breasts
1/2 cup provolone cheese, cut in slices
1/2 cup ham, cut in slices
salt and pepper to taste

To start, I layed out the thin sliced chicken breasts on a big cutting board. If you buy regular chicken breasts you could pound them out to be thinner to stuff and cook.

Next I took equal amounts of the ham and cheese and covered half of the chicken (widthwise) with them. I folded the other half of the chicken over and secured the end with a toothpick. They looked like little pillows!

The cheese I used was a provolone. My mom brought it back from Italy and the outside has a hard rind, but the inside is very soft and creamy. The flavor is so much better than American provolone cheese! Christo of Chez What? shared a few tips and knowledge about cheese with me after his cheese post yesterday! It's very interesting and informative if you get a chance to read it.

After seasoning the chicken with a little salt and pepper I put a small amount of vegetable oil in a skillet. I seared one side of the chicken on medium high heat for about two minutes and then flipped it and put a lid on. I lowered the temperature to medium and cooked for about five minutes, flipped again and cooked another two minutes with the lid on.

I forgot to get a picture until I'd already started eating and cut into it! At least you can see the inside and the way the cheese melted beautifully.

Anything that fell out the sides I just scooped on top of the chicken. I could have been more diligent in securing all of the edges, but I'm lazy! Served alongside Harvest Grain Blend from Trader Joe's and fresh steamed broccoli.

Savory Bread Pudding

We're going to be heading to my Grammy's memorial service in New York this weekend, so meals become a "use up what's left" mission.

Tonight I had a head of broccoli and a plate of leftover Easter ham on my immediate list. Perusing Pioneer Woman's (PW) website, I typed in a search for ham and a few unrelated recipes came up - things that she'd mentioned HAMburger, or what a sHAMe... that sort of unrelated. But, one ended up being really, really promising anyways. A savory bread pudding, using sandwich bread, a meat, veggies, and eggs, milk, and cheese. The submitter had promised you could just replace whichever meat and veggies you needed to get rid of, so it ended up working perfectly in my case!

I started with 6 slices of whole wheat sandwich bread. Which worked out because Johnny usually uses it to make his work lunches, but won't need as much this week, so here was another way to make use of it. Just rough chop it and put it in the bottom of a greased casserole dish. Or, you could even save the heels in the freezer and use them up in this recipe from time to time.

Next, I washed and cut up the head of broccoli and 1/4 of a yellow onion. You could use any vegetables you have on hand here. The recipe PW featured had tomatoes and greens which looked really colorful in the pictures.

Now it's the meat's turn. In my case, it was a plateful of leftover Easter ham Johnny's generous mom sent us home with (along with many other plates of leftovers, fresh fruit, and fresh eggs). I cubed the ham up and it went over the vegetable layer. The PW's featured bacon at this point, but again - whatever meat you have on hand and need to use up.

Finally, mix 8 eggs, 1/2 cup of milk (or half and half as PW used) and spices of your choice together. Stir in a big handful of grated cheese (I used cheddar because we had a bag pre-grated), and pour over everything already in the dish.

Bake in a 350° oven for 30-45 minutes, until the top is starting to get bubbly and browned and the center is cooked through. Cut into squares and serve. I have a feeling the leftovers will be really good for breakfast, too! Yet another versatile meal that you can swap ingredients out for!

Served along fresh sliced strawberries. The casserole made 4 hefty sized servings.