Vegetable Stock, Trail Mix, and "My Favorite Dressing"

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So since I had New Years Eve off even though I worked the night before I did some cooking.   I made the vegetable stock first.  I took all the vegetables listed in ingredients (see previous post) and cleaned and cut them and put them in a stock pan with a little oil in the bottom. 

I let it brown about 15 minutes and stirred often to try to get all vegetables to hit heat at least once, then added the water, salt, pepper, and I added rosemary.  Let it come to a boil, then cover and let simmer for two hours. 

 I strained the vegetables away from the broth (you are supposed to use cheesecloth to get small particles out, but I did not have any and made due.) And packaged it in freezer bags…

And had 6 cups worth packaged and put flat in the freezer and had two big containers of cooked veggies to eat later.

I have two other recipes I made.  First one was trail mix Eli Style.

This mix contains corn Chex (could not find any Oat O’s type cereal without wheat products in our stores), raisins, craisins, pumpkin seeds, Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (dairy, soy, wheat, nut free) all in equal quantities.  We have all been snacking on this today and it is pretty good.  I’m not a fan of the corn chex personally so I might do rice next time, but I like the rest.  This morning both Eli and Ella had some as a mid-morning snack.

*Big note on Enjoy Life foods* they have been a HUGE lifesaver for me, especially when all this started.  All their products are free from the “Big 8” allergens and made in a dedicated facility (no products with those ingredients in them)   Eli loves their cookies, snack bars and granola.  He is starting to get a little tired of them I think because he has had them so much and not much variety but he still enjoys them and I enjoy that I don’t have to worry about them! 

Last recipe was for the salad dressing.  We had salads last night and some leftover grilled pork chops with it.  Eli seemed to like the dressing, Lyle and I both liked it, Ella started spitting food all over the place and got in trouble.   Well, 3 out of 4 isn’t bad.

I minced up a small clove of garlic as small as I could get it and mixed it with honey, Dijon mustard, and basil leaves.  Then stirred in rice vinegar and balsamic vinegar making sure it was completed mixed.  Then I slowly stirred in Extra-Virgin Olive Oil.  That’s it.  You’re supposed to decant, but since I’m not that fancy and like the taste of basil and garlic the chunks give it works fine without!

We ate it on a salad blend that had herbs and greens in it and liked it.  We didn’t put any toppings on it but thought something sweet with it like the craisins would probably taste really good.  I also thought of feta cheese (which Eli cannot have) but Lyle does not like that flavor.

The final recipe this week I have ingredients for is the spaghetti sauce.  I have time today before work but since I work the next two nights dinner will probably be pretty boring Sunday and Monday.  So we’ll see what happens with that.  But I have the eggplant for the one dish and have no idea how long it’ll be good so that might be on the plate tonight! 
Happy New Years!