Not Just Jello

Chloe was starting to feel a little peckish and it's still a couple of hours before dinner, so I dished her out some of the pea salad I made this morning. "It looks so pretty on this plate mom, you should go take a picture of it." She says this as she is walking away eating it.....

I had another plate though.

So Jello isn't my only food of convenience this summer. Every couple of days I also make some sort of salad. My kids, being 10 and 13 are perfectly capable of making themselves lunch and the fridge, freezer and cabinets are kept stocked with healthy food choices. They don't always take the time to to actually make themselves anything though and about two hours before dinner is supposed to start will be telling me they are starving. I'll ask if they bothered to make themselves lunch today and of course they will sigh like it's the hardest thing in the world to actually fend for themselves. So these salads have been our compromise and it has worked out so wonderfully.

 

The kids have food that is already prepared that they can just scoop up and eat, and I have a side dish to serve with dinner also. So far this summer we have done coleslaw, potato salad, tuna and shells, and now this pea salad. I can make these in the mornings when I still have all my energy and am feeling well, and it helps to cut back on the workload. One less thing to worry about lunch, one less thing to fix at dinner and they usually last about 3 to 4 days. They have really helped conserve my spoons. ;)

English Pea Salad

1 frozen bag of peas thawed

½ cup velveeta cheese cubed

2 hard boiled eggs diced

4 slices cooked bacon chopped fine

½ small red onion chopped fine

½ cup mayo

salt and pepper to taste

Mix and refrigerate until ready to serve

Surprisingly Pretty Apple Blossom Salad

After sleeping all night with my legs in the air they finally have returned to normal size, however the loose stretched skin around my thighs still has a somewhat jello like consistency that likes to flap around as I walk. Mr Man has told me I am supposed to take it easy to today and keep my feet up. I told him I will try my best but the steroids really make me antsy and I'm not able to hold still for long. They seriously must put voices in your head, because I don't know why I think the bathroom needs cleaned with a tooth brush at 4am, but it did. That's not something that would have happened off of steroids. They make me into a perfectionist cleaning machine and it the work isn't done it makes me crazy! Weird the way they mess with your head.

My family is starting to get spoiled. This is the 2nd jello mold I have made in as many days. Mr Man went to the fridge and said "I want Jello, when do we get to take it out of this thing." :) At least he knows that I'm going to photograph it before he gets to eat it so he's not just sticking a spoon in and going to town. Imagine the roid rage that would cause, he does value his life. :)

As surprising disappointed in the way yesterdays Juice and Fruit Salad looked I was equally delighted in the way this one turned out. I was also very surprised. It was ugly sitting in the jello mold, but flipped over and on the plate turned it into a beautiful salad. I loved photographing it. The little bubbles on the jello and the apples magical suspended made it a lot of fun trying to capture.

Kurt and Chloe said it looked like one of those fancy candles that you buy with the fruit in it, only this was way better because they got to eat it. I think the two of them ate about half the salad all by themselves. I'm trying to stay away from this one. Last night I made Mr Man's favorite side dish, southern fried sweet corn, and I should not have had any, but I did and I was up all night with the worst tummy pain and Crohn's flares. So I don't think the apples in this one would be doing me any favors.

Apple Blossom Mold

1½ cups boiling water

1 package (8serving size) or 2 packages (4-serving size each) jello lemon flavor gelatin

2 cups cold apple juice

1 cup diced red and green apples

Stir boiling water into gelatin in a large bowl at least 2 minutes until completely dissolved. Stir in cold juice. Refrigerate about 1½ hours until thickened (spoon drawn through leaves definite impression). Stir in apples. Pour into 6-cup mold which has been sprayed with no stick cooking spray.

Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Unmold. Garnish as desired.

Makes 10 servings

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You Are What You Eat

We have all heard that saying right? You are what you eat. Well I definitely feel like a jello mold right now. The steroids have me so swollen I hurt. I'm not talking just a little puffy, I actually have what they call Dropsy. My legs, knees, feet ankles, now cankles are so huge they hurt to move. I can barley walk up and down stairs and have to pull myself up and down with my hands and arms. I cried today because I fell down trying to get into my flower beds to put a gate up for my clematis vine. I didn't hurt myself, I just cried because it upset me so much that I'm so weak. If I get really brave maybe I'll post a photo for you all, of what I normally look like and what I look like right now all swollen with steroids. I'm not sure I'll get that brave though as I'm feeling pretty ugly.

Speaking of ugly this salad did not turn out as pretty as I thought it would. I was picturing a sunset with the split red and orange jello it called for. I'm not sure if the fruit in it toned down the colors or if it just bled together to much in the jello mold. I did put it together a bit fast.

Juice 'n Fruit Salad

2 cups boiling water, divided

1 package (4-serving size) jello any red flavor

1 cup cold orange juice, divided

1 can (8o ounces) sliced peaches. drained, chopped

1 package (4-serving size) jello orange flavor

1 can (8ounces) crushed pineapple, drained

Stir 1 cup of the boiling water into the red gelatin in medium bowl at least 2 minutes until completely dissolved. Stir in ½ cup of the cold juice. Refrigerate about 45 minutes or until slightly thickened (consistency of unbeaten egg whites). Stir in peaches. Spoon into 5-cup mold which has been sprayed with non stick cooking spray. Refrigerate about 20 minutes or until set but not firm (should stick to finger when touched and should mound).

Meanwhile, stir remaining 1 cup boiling water into the orange gelatin in medium bowl at least 2 minutes until completely dissolved. Stir in remaining ½ cup cold juice. Refrigerate about 45 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in pineapple. Spoon over red gelatin in ,old.

Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm, Unmold. Garnish as desired.

Makes 10 servings

Tiny Orange Mousses With Strawberry Sauce

I had some old tin Jello molds I picked up last year. 12 for $1. They were very cool but I never actually planned on making jello with them. I just liked the way they looked. If I were not feeling so dragged down on the drugs right now, I would stack them all cool looking and take photos for this post. It's what  should do. But I can't, I don't have enough spoons right now. I'm actually a little overdue to take the steroids so maybe I'll be buzzing later, but at this moment I'm feeling wiped out and all I want to do is get this posted. :)

So the idea was super cute. This was the next recipe in the jello book and it said you could do these as 12 individual servings. I didn't think about the pail orange color coming off as slightly flesh toned, or that the shapes would be quite so breast like, so now all I see is boobies. Chloe's styling with the raspberry placed right in the center top didn't help stop my giggling.

Even though now all I can see is boobies every time I look at these the kids say they are the most amazing things ever. These were supposed to last for two days, they are already gone. I didn't do the strawberry sauce in the recipe, but used fresh strawberries instead. Not only do they taste better but they are so much cheaper this time of year. So I just cut them up, put them in a pan with sugar, and vanilla, pureed when done and added a bit of corn starch to thicken it up. But the cookbook recipe is here:

Orange Mouse With Strawberry Sauce

1½ cups boiling water

1 package (8-serving size) or 2 packages (4-serving size each) orange jello

2 teaspoons grated orange peel (optional)

1 cup cold water

¾ cup cold orange juice

1 tub (8 ounces) Cool Whip whipped topping, thawed

1 package (10 ounces) frozen strawberries or raspberries in syrup, pureed in blender.

Stir boiling water into gelatin and orange peel in a large bowl at least 2 minutes until gelatin is completely dissolved. Stir in cold water and orange juice. Refrigerate about 1¼ hours or until slightly thickened (consistency of unbeaten egg whites).

Stir in whipped topping with wire whisk until smooth. Pour into 6-cup mold which has been sprayed with non stick cooking spray.

Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm. Unmold. Serve with pureed strawberries.

Makes 12 servings

For individual servings: Poor mouses into 12 (6-ounce) custard cups, fill each about ¾ full

Lemon Mousses: Substitute lemon jello and lemon peal for the orange.

**I would think you could sub lemon aid for the OJ also**

Last image, styling by Chloe of course

Now be very proud of me. At least I kept the word boobies out of the title of this post.

On a Buzz

Woke up at 2:30 with bad Crohn's heart burn and the steroids are keeping me awake. Almost 4 am now, but my meal planning is done for the week. Grocery store ads were updated when I checked them at 3 so I got my list done and planned my meals.

Tomorrow, I guess that is actually today, we will be having shrimp alfredo with bow tie pasta, garlic bread sticks and lettuce salad. This is an easy no brainier meal for us. Maddie has a basketball game at 5pm so cooking needs to be fast and easy when we get home. This is a jar of alfredo sauce, some quick cooking salad shrimps, and bow tie noodles thrown together with frozen bread sticks and chopped up lettuce. Takes less the 15 minutes and the kids love it.

Oh yea, I'm making an orange mouse in the morning for desert that night. Another jello book recipe. :)

Thursday morning I'm making a big tuna mac salad. This will be eaten for lunches and served as a side dish for the next couple of days. Thursday night is grilled hamburgers, the tuna mac salad, and baked beans, maybe chips if I buy them though I'm not big on having them in the house. I do cave occasionally for the kids though, they like them even if I can't stand the taste of them.

Friday is Kurt's day off and I like to cook big that day. Grilled brown sugar pork steaks, fried corn, mashed potatoes, the last of the tuna mac and an apple jello to compliment the apple in the brown sugar sauce.

Right now Saturday is open to see what we end up with for leftovers. I don't think there will be a lot as I only make 4 of everything, and we eat it when it's served. I'm leaning towards a recipe I found in a cooking light cookbook using sliced up steak, caramelized onions, mushrooms all in soy sauce, served over rice. It sounds like something my family would like, although Chloe will pick out all the onions and mushrooms.

Sunday is another recipe I just found. Super easy. Garlic and brown sugar pored over chicken and roasted in a very hot oven. The tuna mac salad should be gone by then so that morning I'll make a pea salad to take it's place. There might be fried corn and mashed potatoes left from pork chop day to have with this also so I won't plan any sides other then the salad, which I'm making anyway.

I'm liking having a salad and a jello in the fridge all the time. The kids are out of school for the summer and they are supposed to feed themselves lunch. They are lazy children though. Sometimes Chloe just doesn't eat at all, and Maddie will just grab what is easy. That's why I don't keep junk in the house. Maddie would eat a whole box of cookies just so she didn't have to actually fix herself anything. The salad and jello makes it easy for all of us. I make a big salad, last week it was coleslaw, this week it was potato salad, next it's tuna mac.... Chloe always eats the salad for lunch and Maddie always eats the jello, everyone eats healthy and I'm not cooking for people all day long.

Totally Trippin' Over Jello

Chloe and I went a little trippy with the Jello today.

Chloe says it smells amazing and swearers she can taste each individual flavor of Jello, but all I taste is a mouth coated with flagil fungus, which means everything tastes like cardboard. It's a bit scary to cook this way. Yesterday I made chicken burritos. I have to be extra careful not to over season. To me the burrito meet was tasting the exact same as my favorite lasagna sauce I made the day before, which also tastes exactly like this Jello. Overgrown taste buds, not a good thing.

Lucky for me my husband is not a subtle man. He never gushes over my cooking, ever. I'm lucky if I get an "oh, it's OK" out of him. However when he eats enough for three people, then right away goes back and makes sure he has some packed for his lunch the next day then you know you must have gotten it right..

Rainbow Ribbon Mold

Prep Time: 1 hour Refrigeration Time: 4½ hours

6¼ cups boiling water

5 packages (4-serving size) jello, any 5 different flavors

1 cup sour cream OR vanilla yogurt

Stir 1¼ cups boiling water into 1 flavor of gelatin in a small bowl at least 2 minutes until completely dissolved. Pour ¾ cup of the dissolved gelatin into a 6 cup ring mold. Refrigerate about 15 minutes until set but not firm (gelatin should stick to finger when touched and should mound). Refrigerate remaining gelatin in bowl about 5 minutes until slightly thickened (consistency of unbeaten egg whites). Gradually stir in 3 tablespoons of the sour cream. Spoon over gelatin in pan. Refrigerate about 15 minutes or until set but not firm (gelatin should stick to finger when touched and should mound).

Meanwhile, repeat process with each remaining gelatin flavor. (be sure to cool dissolved gelatin to room temperature before pouring into mold.) Refrigerate gelatin as directed to create a total of 10 alternating clear and creamy layers.

Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm. Unmold. Garnish if desired.

Makes 12 servings

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Jello

I am on a major jello kick lately. Mostly because it's cheep, and the kids love it. So for $2 I can get two boxes of jello and a tub of whip cream. I make Jello everyday and the kids sometimes mix it with the whip cream.

BTW did I mention that I'm not working again. The Crohn's is back very badly and I can't do anything but steroids for treatment, because of the histoplasmosis, and the steroids aren't working. On the Crohn's anyway. My house is clean, my garden is beautiful, I get a lot done. I have to stop a lot and work through the pain, run to the bathroom every few minutes, but as long as I don't have to work around people I'm good. This way if I mess myself only I know, I don't have to be embarrassed trying to excuse myself and still make it to the bathroom on time.

So the medical bills are piling up as I go every couple of weeks to Mayo clinic, and I'm out at our local hospital being poked on at least every other day.  Not working and all those bills have us looking for cheep food alternatives. Junk food is so expensive, and it's the 1st thing the kids clear out of the house. So the jello thing is working for me, even if I do have to make it every night before bed.

The other great thing about jello is it gives us Crhonies one more liquid form of calories. It's easy on the tummy and easy to digest, brings our sugar levels up if were getting depleted. It does a lot for a cheep little 49 cent box of sugar water. :)

Last summer I picked up this book for a quarter at a garage sale. It's called Jello Collections. I tried to find it online but none of them I could find is the same book. Anyway since I am making jello everyday anyway I thought I would work my way though a couple of the recipes. I had some fruit an the edge of going bad so I started with the 2nd recipe in called Sparkling Berry Salad.

Sparkling Berry Salad

2 cups boiling cranberry cocktail

1 package (8-serving size) or 2 packages (4 serving size each) jello any red flavor

1 ½ cups cold seltzer or club soda

¼ cup creme de cassis liqueur (optional) *I skipped this*

1 tea lemon juice

3 cups assorted berries (I used blueberries and chopped strawberries)

Stir boiling cranberry juice into gelatin in large bowl at least 2 minutes until completely dissolved. Stir in cold seltzer, liqueur and lemon juice. Refrigerate about 1½ hours or until slightly thickened (consistency of unbeaten egg whites).

Stir in 2 cups of the berries. Spoon into 5 cup jello mold. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Unmold. Top with remaining 1 cup berries.

Chloe and I ate this for breakfast this morning, right after we photographed it. She picked the setting for this last photo, saying the hankie she picked out tied in the blue and red of the berries. She's so cute.