A Gourmet Sack Lunch Meal

Last week we had our RS Birthday dinner and had these yummy gourmet sack lunches. They sent out the recipes, they were really good! Here they all are.

Pesto Mayonnaise

¼ cup mayo

2 Tbsp. Parmesan Cheese

1 dash of garlic powder

1 Tbsp. Gourmet Garden Basil Herb Blend  (I’m sure you could also just use fresh basil.  I just went for the easy route.  This is found in the produce section by the fresh herbs and it is in a little squeeze bottle.)

Cranberry Dijon

½ cup whole cranberry sauce (homemade or canned)

2 tsp. Dijon mustard (or more to taste)

The recipe I found calls for 1 tsp. horseradish but I forgot to buy it at the store, so I didn’t put it in.  It would probably give it more of a kick though and might be good.

Whole Wheat Bread 

(makes 4 large loaves)

***This recipe was made for a bosch mixture, for me, I think bosch is the greatest and best way to go with bread. But I'm sure other mixer machines would work as well.***

5 c. warm water

2 T. instant yeast

1/4 c. oil

1/4 c. honey

3 T. dough enhancer (this is used in lots of dough recipes, it makes super fluffy, moist, bread. I found mine at a kitchen store in Utah and bought several cans. I'm sure you can find it here in Cleveland, although I've never looked for it)

1/2 c. gluten (I also bought a bag of this at the same kitchen store in Utah, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it in the store here)

6 c. wheat flour (freshly ground is always yummier, but store bought works great too!)

Instructions (these are really important, it can make all the difference when it comes to making bread!)

Knead above ingredients for 2-3 minutes. (I set my timer and make sure it gets a full 2 minutes). Then sprinkle 2 more cups of flour on top, then 2 T. on top of the flour. (Supposedly the salt can mess with the yeast, so it works better to put it on top of the flour and mix it in that way.... this is just what the kitchen store told us when they gave us the recipe!). Mix in that 2 cups of flour. Then add more flour until it reaches a good consistency, about 3-4 more cups of flour. About 12-14 cups in total recipe. I know when my dough is a good consistency because it starts to pull away from the sides, and the bowl is practically clean when it's done mixing, there is no dough on the sides of the bowl. Once it reaches this consistency, knead 8-10 minutes (set your timer!). Shape into loaves in greased bread pans. Let rise until double in size (about an hour). Then bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until golden on top.

Note* They had this sliced and we ate it as cold sandwiches with ham and white cheese, then we had the options of the two sauces above. I loved it with the Pesto Mayonnaise. The bread worked great for cold sandwiches.


Thai Peanut Noodle Salad

1 cup Asian sesame dressing

2 TBS soy sauce

2 TBS crunchy peanut butter (i add more... maybe 3)

2 TBS honey 

1 pkg thin spaghetti (i use whole grain)

4 green onions

1 cup chopped cilantro

spinach (approx 2 cups) and matchstick sliced carrots, or shred your own (approx 1 cup)

cook spaghetti, drain, and toss with 1/4c of the asian dressing. 

mix remaining 3/4c asian dressing with PB, honey, and soy sauce in a bowl.

add spinach, carrots, green onions, cilantro to noodles. 

pour dressing mixture over. mix lightly. this is good cold or warm.

i also usually add chicken (2 cooked breast, or i'll buy a rotisserie chicken and pull meat from it~ VERY GOOD) and serve as main dish.

 ****other things we've added- bean sprouts, water chestnuts, mandarin oranges (was ok), baby corn (the little ones on the cob), sugar snap peas.... you can dressing it up or down. just make slt more dressing if you add much more to it, like 1 1/2 of the recipe. very versatile.***

White Cake

1 french vanilla cake mix

1 6oz plain Yogurt (I can never find plain so I use vanilla)

3 egg whites

3/4 c milk

1/3 c vegetable oil

Mix on low until blended then beat on high for 3 minutes

9x13 cake pan

Bake 335 degrees for 40 minutes

After its baked make a lemon glaze

1/8 c water, 1/8 c sugar.  Heat until dissolved and squeeze 1 whole lemon or 2TB lemon juice. Mix, fork the cake a few times and brush the glaze over top of cake with pastry brush.  Before eating sprinkle top with powder sugar. 

Refrigerate the cake, I use this for a yummy strawberry shortcake so thats why the lemon glaze and powder sugar are good however you can also frost it.

 Note* The cake was frosted with a buttercream frosting. They were SO good.

Here are a few pictures I stole off a girl in my ward's blog of the dinner. The center pieces were so cute too. All she did was make suckers on skewers and filled the pots with rock salt and stuck them in. How cute & easy!