Feed Your Inner Fat Kid

My favorite way to cook vegetables.

2011-03-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

This year I learned the most AWESOME trick to cooking vegetables from my friend Holly. She enlightened me to roasted cauliflower and then I suddenly heard buzz everywhere about roasting vegetables. Since my family loves roasted cauliflower, I've tried roasting TONS of other vegetables, all with great success.

Favorites I've roasted:
carrots
asparagus
broccoli
butternut squash (for soup)

The formula is easy and consistent. Toss your chosen vegetable (cut into bite-sized pieces) in olive oil with a little salt and pepper and pop in a 400-425 degree oven on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan for 20ish minutes. Turn the veggies halfway through. And then? EAT.

The easiest way to cook chicken ever in history.

2011-03-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

You won't be surprised to hear that I use Antonio Banderas, aka my beloved Crock Pot, to cook chicken. This method is an easy, cheap way to cook up chicken for many uses! If you want a "roasted" or "rotisserie" chicken this is NOT the method to use, but if you need some chicken for chili, chicken salad, etc. this is PERFECT!

Step 1: Get a whole chicken. The chicken in the photo above is a fryer, but I'm pretty sure this would also work with a larger chicken (a roaster, etc.).

Step 2: Rinse the chicken inside and out and discard all the extra included goodies (the, uh, innards that are in the cavity YUCK).

Step 3: Spray your crock with cooking spray.

Step 4: Plop the entire chicken in and add a little salt and pepper if you want.

Step 5: Put the top on the Crock Pot.

Step 6: Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Step 7: Remove the chicken, let it cool if you have time, and pick the meat off the bones. You should be able to get both breast portions off whole because the thing is just moist, perfectly cooked, and falling apart. Discard the bones. Eat the meat/use it in your recipe that calls for cooked chicken.

THE END.

I have a lot of ideas about variations you can do on this recipe! You could probably add a cut up fresh lemon or an onion or some fresh rosemary/herbs to the pot if you want to experiment with flavors. You could also add a cup or two of chicken broth or water if you want to use the strained juices later as the base for a soup or as broth or if you're nervous about cooking the chicken without anything else in the pot. I assure you, however, that by the time the chicken is done that there is PLENTY of liquid. The crock pot seals in the juices from the chicken and doesn't let them out as it cooks.

Verdict? YUM.

(I got this idea from an old friend. Hi Lisa!! Thanks for the tip!)

I'm a dork for sporks.

2011-03-24T11:57:00.000-07:00

I mentioned to a friend recently that I thought the Spork is one of the triumphs of human ingenuity and admitted that I often grab a few spares whenever I'm (very rarely anymore) at Taco Bell. About a week later, these arrived (it was actually super awesome ... he put them in the bottom of a cereal box for us as "the prize"!).

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Titanium Spork!

No more Taco Bell runs required! I guess I'll have to find another excuse...

Easy barbecue chicken pizza

2010-05-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last post that I've been making pizza with pre-made packaged pizza crusts this week and the success has been great! It's definitely an easy way to step up from frozen pizza, use up leftovers and stuff you have in your fridge (Bobolis come with their own little pre-measured packets of pizza sauce too! So easy!).

The leftovers that have been hanging out in my fridge this week are some grilled barbecue chicken breasts that we made on Saturday. John has been making huge sandwiches of them all week and finally today I was down to one-and-a-half chicken breasts. Perfect time to use up my extra Boboli crust! I'd been eyeballing a recipe from epicurious.com for a simple barbecue chicken pizza all week. In anticipation I picked up a half pound wedge of gouda cheese (gouda! I hardly know her! ha ha!! Ok so I'm probably the only who thought that was funny) and a red onion. We already had plenty of barbecue sauce on hand (Sweet Baby Ray's is our household fave ... we buy it in bulk at Costco!).

So here's what I did:

I cut up the chicken in slices/chunks. I had one-and-a-half grilled chicken breasts that were lightly coated with BBQ sauce. I put the sliced chicken in a bowl and coated it with 1/2 cup barbecue sauce (the original recipe called for 1/4 cup but I accidentally overdid it ... happy accident!). Then I cut the wax and rind off the gouda cheese and shredded it. It seemed like a lot of cheese but I ended up using it all! I didn't want to waste it!!

I layered half the cheese on the crust, then arranged the chicken on top of that. I scraped down the bowl and added any leftover sauce to that. Then I added about half a thinly-sliced red onion (it was a medium-ish size) all over the chicken. Then a drizzle of BBQ sauce from the bottle. Then the rest of the cheese on top. Oooh baby. I gouda you.

Baked it for 15-ish minutes in a 450 degree oven.

OH EM GEE. This pizza. It is so good.

Sydney wasn't as big a fan of this one as she was of the tomato basil one I made earlier this week, but she did enjoy licking all the cheese and barbecue sauce off the top:

I ate mine straight up. And had to restrain myself from going back and eating the rest (poor John will need something to eat when he gets home from teaching tonight).

The shortcut of the century: Boboli pizza crust

2010-05-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

Recently when I was strolling the aisles of - where else! - Costco they had a 2-pack of ready made pizza crusts (with sauce) that I just had to take home. My family came into town for a visit soon after and we had a Make Your Own Pizza Party! I made a very safe fresh tomato, mushroom and basil pizza with lots of mozzarella cheese while my sister and her boyfriend took it to another level with Italian sausage, peppers, mushrooms ... the works.

As I am making the effort lately to use up all our leftovers AND cook at home more, I figured a pizza party was in order this week. I picked up a two-pack of Boboli crusts at my grocery store and pulled out all the stops (we already had roma tomatoes and fresh basil and cheese in the fridge just begging to be used up).

I topped my pizza to my pleasing (I used the included sauce packet, lots of tomato rounds and a huge handful of fresh basil, along with salt and pepper):

The results? Well lets just say we wolfed it down so fast I didn't have time for any after photos. Syd ate TWO adult-sized pieces, chirping about "pizza!" the whole time! We had no leftovers. OOPS. The toppings were piled high and the pizza crust was still crispy and chewy (not soggy).

What I love about these pizza crusts is that it allows me to do something I love (cook) without sacrificing a lot of time. I can use what I have on hand or I can get all fancy and make something more complicated. I don't feel bad about NOT making pizza crusts from scratch ... as of this moment I don't see any reason why I should! Hooray for shortcuts!

I think I love you: Cook's Country

2010-05-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

It is well-documented that I'm a PBS junkie. We don't have cable and I need my fix of cooking shows and historical drama (and also? Sesame Street only comes on twice a day. HA). One of my favorite cooking shows on PBS is called Cook's Country. It is a "test kitchen" show where they try out equipment and tell you what the best versions of recipes are. I LOVE IT! Arguably it's very nerdy, but hey, I'm a big nerd.

Recently a recipe for a mashed potato casserole caught my eye on the show and so I took to the internet to print out a copy. Unfortunately I had to "sign up" for the website in order to procure the recipe (which I have yet to make). Signing up for an account on the website also signed me up for the show's magazine. I received my "free trial" copy today and I have to tell you ... I LOVE IT. Number one, it has no ads. Number two? It's beautiful. It's a large, thin glossy magazine with gorgeous two-page spreads on recipes and kitchen equipment reviews and FOOD. This month's issue (the mag comes out every other month) had reviews on immersion blenders and a yummy-looking recipe for tomato mac and cheese. I'm intrigued! I pored over it today as Syd and I munched on her dinner (she does better when she has a little space to eat. Can't blame her) and practically had to wipe the drool off the page. I'm going to send them a check. This magazine is awesome!

The view from my kitchen today:

2010-05-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

(It was the only way to get dinner done today with no potential injuries.)

Homemade salsa, the easy way

2010-05-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

Today my husband discovered the salsa (courtesy of The Pioneer Woman) that I made earlier in the week and sent me the following series of texts:

You think he liked it?

The recipe was easy, but it would have been easier if I had a large food processor (I have a little 4-cupper) or a decent blender. SIGH. I had to do the salsa in batches in the blender. I also added a lot more cilantro (I used an entire bunch), used lemon juice instead of lime because that's what I had, and used one fiery hot chili pepper from our garden (no seeds, and still! SO HAWT!!).

It's good stuff. John'll tell you. :)

Salsa chicken in the crock pot!

2010-05-14T14:10:00.000-07:00

Oh man, this recipe totally saved my butt for dinner. It was about 1 pm and I had NO IDEA what to do for dinner. I knew I had salsa, rice, and chicken breasts (frozen) on hand. I remembered a salsa chicken recipe my friend Elizabeth posted on Style Lush and wondered if I could make it my slow cooker. I googled a few salsa chicken recipes but they all called for beans and corn (which I did not have on hand) and I decided to just throw caution to the wind and go for it.

BOY AM I GLAD I DID! This recipe knocked our socks off. We have been doing a lot of soup in the crock pot lately (we are totally sick the classic chicken tortilla soup in the crock pot ... I was making it once a week for a while).

Anyway, here goes:

Put 4 frozen chicken breasts and lots of salsa (2+ cups) in the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours.

When you're nearly ready to eat, make some rice. I made 2 cups of uncooked white rice in my rice cooker ... it took about 15 mins.

Take the chicken out of the pot and set on a plate. Add 2-3 Ts of sour cream to the sauce in the pot and stir. Then add as much rice as you want (I added most of what I made in the rice cooker, minus about 1/2 cup).

Scoop up some rice on a plate and top with a chicken breast. Add cheese if you want. Be sure to put the leftovers somewhere the dog can't get it. I learned the hard way that my basset hound REALLY liked this dish too. UGH.

Cauliflower's new life

2010-05-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

John hates cauliflower. HATES. I can't say that I've ever big a big fan of it either but I get tired of the same old green beans and broccoli and steamed carrots racket, you know? A while a go my friend Holly mentioned that she and her boyfriend actually got into a FIGHT over some roasted cauliflower they'd made and they now had to get TWO heads of cauliflower so they could still have harmony in their relationship. I've been experimenting with roasting veggies more lately (see the recipe for roasted carrots here ... Syd and I LOVED these!) and so I pressed Holly for her instructions on roasted cauliflower. I finally made this one night when Syd and I were on our own for dinner and WOW. She and I ate the entire head of cauliflower between the two of us! YUM! I knew I had to make it for John. I did just that a few weeks ago and he has requested it several times since. Last night I made it again and he turned to me with a mouthful and said "I think I'm addicted to this stuff!" If that's not a total 180 I don't know what is!

Here's the method I use. One head can serve two hungry people, but I've made two heads at a time just like Holly and it doesn't last long! We usually eat all the leftovers the following day!

1-2 heads of cauliflower, cut into florets, stem and leaves discarded
olive oil
kosher salt & pepper

Once you've cut up the cauliflower put it into a large bowl and drizzle with A LOT of olive oil. I'm not really sure how much I use because I don't measure but it has to be at least a cup when I make 2 heads! I usually drizzle, then add a few pinches of salt and pepper, toss, then add more until everything is completely and evenly coated. Then dump the bowl onto a large cookie sheet and pop it into a 400 degree oven. Every ten minutes or so toss the cauliflower with a large spatula. After about 25 mins your cauliflower will be soft, slightly browned (and it shrinks a bit in size) and is totally amazingly addictively delicious. I dare you to find a picky eater who won't like this veggie!

Photo from simplyrecipes.com

Give Brussels sprouts a second look!

2010-05-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

Recently at Trader Joe's I saw a bag of washed and ready-to-go Brussels sprouts in the refrigerator section and snapped them up. I was planning on slicing them up thinly and sauteing them in bacon drippings that I've had in my fridge forever (I saw a similar dish in a magazine and thought I'd give the yucky sprouts of my childhood another go). However, things took a turn when I made a ham in my slow cooker this past Monday. The ham bone went in the freezer for a future, and may I say lucky?, pot of beans. John had a ham sandwich earlier in the week and we have enough ham left for about one more collosal sandwich and then a lot of smaller pieces for .... I didn't know. Last night I was cooking up a storm, trying to keep a lot of fresh veggies from going to waste (we had corn on the cob and roasted cauliflower too!) and I needed a quick way to prepare these sprouts. I went to google and found a recipe that called for brown sugar and chicken broth and HAM, so I improvised!

I put a tablespoon-ish of bacon drippings in the pan, melted them down, then added about 2 cups of chicken broth and heated until boiling. Then I added about 1 T of brown sugar and one t. of kosher salt. I threw a top on the pan and served up the other veggies to Syd and when the sprouts were slightly wilted I gave it all a stir, crumbled in some ham, turned off the heat and ate. I liked the (Syd did not). It was an easy and fast way to prep the sprouts and it definitely got my mental wheels turning. And of course we're all reminded of the important fact that bacon and/or ham make ANYTHING better. Ha!!

I've found my inner fat kid

2010-02-12T10:43:00.001-08:00

And here he is:

I love him!!

C is for skillet cookie, that's good enough for me!

2010-02-10T11:20:00.000-08:00

Monday was a Mama Needs Cookie kind of day. My friend Jennie recently linked to Ezra Poundcake's version of Martha Stewart's skillet cookie (say that three times fast). I am always looking for new ways to use my trusty Lodge cast-iron skillet, so I was immediately interested. I have to confess that I had some trouble with the, uh, wording of the instructions. The last item on the original ingredient list goes like this: 1 1/2 cups mixed milk and semisweet chocolate chips (about 9 ounces). For a good thirty minutes I pondered this. How does one mix milk and chocolate chips? How do you know how much of each to use? How do you combine a liquid measurement and a dry measurement? I even took to Twitter to beg for help. After which I soon realized that it was calling for milk chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips. DUH. Can you tell I'd had a LONG day? Which was WHY I needed a cookie in the first place?

You'd think it would be smooth sailing after that little episode. I assure you, it was not.

This cookie dough is not to be trifled with. I snapped my spatula in half while trying to fold in the semi-sweet chocolate chips (I chose to boycott the milk chocolate chips for making a fool of me. Also, I didn't have any on hand). RIP blue spatula. We had a good run.

Once I got past the recipe tomfoolery and the spatula injury, this cookie was impressive. I also accidentally added 1/4 cup too much white sugar (I make the Toll House recipe so much it's imprinted on my brain) and it turned out delicious. AMAZING, actually. It was gone by last night. How sad.

Here's the recipe with my modifications in bold. Best of luck!

Serves 8

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (I used less, let's say "scant")
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (I used salted butter)
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (I used dark)
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (about 9 ounces)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes (I used a hand mixer).
4. Add egg and vanilla, mixing until they are fully incorporated.
5. Add flour mixture, and beat until just combined.
6. Stir in chocolate chips (Beware, flimsy spatula!)
7. Transfer dough to a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, and press to flatten, covering the bottom of the pan. Bake until the edges are brown and top is golden, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, 15 to 20 minutes. Cut into 8 wedges. Serve each with a scoop of ice cream or a large glass of milk.

Easy stuffed peppers

2010-02-04T19:43:00.000-08:00

I recently re-organized my cookbook (basically a three-ring binder with clear plastic pages into which I stuff recipes that I find and like), and happened back upon my mom's recipe for stuffed peppers. I made it for dinner tonight ... so easy and really yummy! I threw this together while Syd munched on her dinner in the high chair.

Here's my mom's recipe with some tweaks (I ended up with 6 peppers, her recipe called for 4).

6 bell peppers, green or red
1.5 pounds ground beef
medium-large diced onion
~1 T minced garlic (to taste)
2 small cans diced tomatoes
shredded cheese (I used a Mexican blend I had on hand, but you can use whatever you like)
salt and pepper
chili powder
1/2 cup instant rice
1/2 T. sugar

Cut the tops off the peppers and clean out the insides. Par boil the peppers by dropping them in boiling water for about 7 mins. Remove and place in a rectangular baking dish with high sides (I used two glass loaf pans).

Meanwhile sautee the ground beef with the onion and garlic (add more garlic if you like). When the meat is cooked add the tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper, and a few dashes of chili powder (optional). You really can season this however you like ... you could add red pepper flakes if you like it spicier, or substitute a can of RoTel for one can of tomatoes ... the possibilities are endless. Stir everything together and then add the rice. Cover and cook until the rice is done. Taste the meat filling and adjust your seasonings as needed.

Place a small amount of the meat mixture in the bottom of each pepper, then place some cheese on top of that. Then fill the peppers to the top with the rest of the meat mixture and then top with cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

I enjoyed my pepper with corn tortilla chips (as I do most things).

Bon apetit!!

Crock Pot Roast Beef and Potatoes

2010-01-27T13:22:00.000-08:00

I wasn't lying when I said I've been going nuts with the Crock Pot lately! Yesterday I made my first roast in the Crock Pot and DANG it turned out amazing! I have to tell you I think the Crock Pot is a totally fool-proof amazing way to cook. It has certainly put food back on our table this year, as we have a squirmy toddler who has to be barred from the kitchen via baby gate. It is so easy for me to throw a bunch of ingredients in my slow cooker in the morning when she is restrained in her high chair eating breakfast and it is so SATISFYING to have dinner ready to go when we're ready to eat at around 5:3o pm. God bless you, Inventor of the Crock Pot!

Here's what I did:

First add to your Crock Pot:
3-4 red potatoes (mine were on the large side) cut up in large chunks with the skin on. You could probably also use Baby Golds. Whatever you like or have available.
One large cubed onion.
4ish carrots, cut into chunks. I used regular unpeeled carrots, but you could also throw in a few handfuls of the washed and peeled baby carrots that we all know and love.
A heaping tablespoon of minced garlic (I have a huge Costco jar on hand in the fridge ... best purchase EVER MADE at Costco if you ask me).
One bay leaf
One cup of beef broth

Get a ~3 lb. chuck roast, coat it generously on both sides with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and garlic powder. Then coat it with flour and sear it on all sides in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Place it on top of the potatoes and carrots in your slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Serve with biscuits and the drippings (or "juice" as we call it) for dinner and everyone will think they've died and gone to heaven.

(As a side note, the way to know that your roast is "done" is when its texture changes from kinda "hard" ... in other words if you poke it with a fork or squeeze it with your tongs it won't have a lot of give. When it's done it will be all floppy and falling apart and unwieldy and AMAZING so just be careful not to drop it on the floor when you remove it from the slow cooker or you just might cry. I would.)

Julie & Julia

2010-01-27T13:02:00.001-08:00

Last night I finally saw the movie Julie & Julia. Naturally I thought it was WONDERFUL as it focuses on two of my favorite subjects: Writing and cooking! My husband watched it with me and even had to admit that it was a fantastic film. I related to it on so many levels ... especially how Julie, a writer, loves to blow off steam by cooking. Meryl Streep is obviously an amazing actress and played Julia so well, the food all looked FANTASTIC, and yes, it inspired me to cook and I totally printed out the recipe for Julia Child's Beof Bourguignon this morning ... three complicated pages. Oof. It might be a while before I get to that one as I am a person who doesn't attempt a recipe unless it is easy to make and isn't particularly labor-intensive (for instance, my Crock Pot has been getting a major workout this winter).

My favorite part of the movie had to be the story of Julia and Paul Child's marriage. Nora Ephron, you get props from me: You know how to tell a story.

If you love to cook, or even just watch cooking shows, you will love this movie!!

Here's a link to the Julie/Julia project blog that is featured in the movie. I'm about to go and devour it!)

Chicken Tortilla Soup in the Crock Pot

2010-01-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

My Crock Pot has been getting a lot of use lately! My friend Kara (famous for her Governor Bar recipe, woah mama) recently posted on Facebook that she made chicken tortilla soup in her Crock Pot. I was intrigued and immediately asked for the recipe. I make another version of chicken tortilla soup every so often but it is a bit labor intensive, so I don't make it a lot even though it's delicious. I was able to throw this recipe together with stuff I already had on hand and poof! Dinner appeared! We were all pleased. Hope you enjoy it too!

Here's the recipe cut and pasted straight out of Facebook. Thanks Kara!!

1. 4 chicken breasts (I put mine in frozen)
2. 2 cans chicken broth
3. 2 cans diced tomatoes
4. 1 cup salsa... See More
5. 1/2 cup chopped cilantro (or 2 T dry)
6. 1 T Cumin
7. 1 can black beans (drained)
8. 1 can corn

-put all ingredients in and mix it up.
-cook in crockpot on low for 8-10 hours
-I shred the chicken an hour before done cooking
-serve with tortilla chips and cheddar cheese

(You can modify this recipe to your liking. I've substituted RoTel for one or both cans of tomatoes, I usually dump in a lot more salsa - we get the medium pico de gallo kind - and I also add chili powder and extra cumin for more umph. But this recipe as is is REALLY good. I just enjoy playing around and not following directions. Story of my life.)

Steel cut oats in the rice cooker!

2009-11-03T08:49:00.000-08:00

I've been hearing about this method of cooking your steel cut oats in the rice cooker for a while now and I finally remembered to try it last night! I say that because even though this recipe is super, super easy ... you do have to remember to put your oatmeal and water into the rice cooker the night before so the oats can soak. If you can remember to do that, you'll enjoy this so-simple-it's-crazy breakfast TOMORROW!

Night before:

Add one cup of oats (this recipe is specifically for steel cut Irish oats. If you are trying another kind, please google ANOTHER recipe, ha ha!) and 2 cups plus 3 oz. water to your rice cooker.

Morning of:

Plug in/turn on your rice cooker. Foil the baby in her attempts to climb the bookcase and pound on your Macbook.

15 minutes later ... EAT!

I topped my oats with a tablespoon of brown sugar, a handful of blueberries, a few sliced almonds, and some fat free half-and-half. And I have leftovers to microwave for tomorrow! This recipe is going into heavy rotation at our house. It's a lot better than eating leftover Halloween candy for breakfast!

The hippie strikes again: Composting

2009-10-16T16:43:00.000-07:00

The other day I walked out in our backyard to get the hose and I stumbled across this:

No, we don't suddenly have chickens roosting in our backyard. My husband has taken to "composting" egg shells in what's left of his tomato patch back there. Being the sweet wife I am, I informed him that his little experiment wouldn't work unless he actually worked the egg shells into the soil. My husband is an experienced gardener, and HE KNOWS THIS. But time is of the essence lately and we don't have no stinkin' time.

It did get me thinking, though. And as I peeled apples over the kitchen sink today it occurred to me that they were compostable and would probably really help replenish the soil in the garden.

When I was a kid my grandmother always had a little container with a lid set out on the counter next to the sink. She would save and reuse produce bags from the grocery store to line it. In would go coffee grounds, vegetable and fruit peelings, anything that could be thrown into my grandfather's extensive garden out back. My grandfather could grow anything. As a kid I wandered through his garden helping him pick out cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes. Nothing tasted quite so good as food grown in my grandparents' Virginia back yard.

Today I became a little more like Grandmother. I think she would be proud.

And let's hope it's rewarded with gigantic tomatoes next summer!

Great recipe finds

2009-10-16T16:29:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been stumbling upon the most AMAZING, easy recipes that have been real crowd pleasers. I wanted to provide the links here so you can print them for your own recipe books (I don't have any photos because most of the results disappeared VERY quickly.

Simple Sesame Noodles (These are so good, and when I went to purchase the oils I needed it only cost about $10 ... and it's Los Angeles so you have a good shot at it being cheaper where you live! Very, very good).

Green Enchiladas (These are a huge, tremendous hit every time. I substitute onions for the celery, though. So easy to make!)

Corn and Bean Summer Salad (YUM! We eat this like salsa with tortilla chips. It is very satisfying)

And in the oven right now with some modifications ... Breakfast Apple Granola Crisp

(I'll let you know how this one turns out).

Happy cooking!

And on the list to try! Hummus!

The best brownie mix!

2009-10-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I need to stress eat, nothing can satisfy me like a good warm brownie. On a stressful night a few weeks ago I half-jokingly replied to a resident of my house who asked me if I needed anything that I needed a very specific box of brownie mix. That person is AWESOME and soon returned with my fave, Ghirardelli Caramel Turtle Brownie mix. IT IS THE BEST. Try it for yourself, you won't be disappointed.

Another one bites the dust

2009-07-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

My garbage disposal has been the death of many kitchen tools - spoons, chopsticks, breast pump accessories, you name it and it's been ground to a pulp - at our house. The latest victim? My favorite tablespoon measure. Dangit. I loved this thing!

What's cookin' today:

2009-06-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Mediterranean Pepper Salad ala Smitten Kitchen

(We've already eaten half of this today. It's SO SO GOOD OH MY GOODNESS).

Dinner: Green Enchiladas ala Secret Agent Josephine

(Smells good so far. Gotta love Crock Pot cooking!)

Pasta primavera (puttanesca style!)

2009-06-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen that movie A Series of Unfortunate Events? In the movie at one point the kids have to make dinner for their evil uncle (played by Jim Carrey) and they make something they call "pasta puttanesca" which the oldest sister defines as a pasta dish that you make with whatever ingredients are available. Wikipedia, however, defines pasta alla puttanesca as "whore's pasta" and as it turns out it originally WAS a dish made from whatever was lying around but now there's a specific recipe for it, blah, blah, blah. Check out the link here. (And by the way I can't wait to answer the question, "Mom, what's for dinner?!" with the response, "WHORE'S PASTA!" ha ha!)

I bring all this up because sometimes I make a dish that in my head I call "pasta puttanesca" and define it as making a pasta dish with whatever I can find! Usually, though, my dish looks a lot more like pasta primavera because I make it with whatever vegetables I can find in my fridge and freezer.

Last night I made this dish for John and it turned out great!

First I salted and boiled the water for the pasta and got that going (did you know that adding salt to the water makes it boil faster? Something about it changes the molecular structure of the water. I got a B in chemistry in high school so that's the best explanation I can give you. It DOES work!). I used farfalle (bow tie) pasta. Penne or any other short pasta works great for this. While the pasta was going I heated a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan with a lid. Then I added two small diced onions, carrots, a bag of frozen broccoli, and frozen mushrooms and let this cook for a while over med-high heat. After the veggies had defrosted and the carrots had softened a bit I added fresh tomatoes, garlic salt, ground black pepper, and stirred. Let this cook until the tomatoes are warm.

At the very end I added some chicken breast I had in the fridge (left over from a Crock Pot experiment I'll tell you about one day) plus more olive oil. After this was all heated, the pasta was done! I drained the pasta, returned it to the pot, then added the veggies. A few dashes of parm and we were ready to go!

And then? We chowed down. YUM.

I think I can handle fro-yo, so long as it's blended with ice cream

2009-06-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

Let me just start this by saying that I HATE FROZEN YOGURT. I figure that if I'm going to eat ice cream I may as well just eat ice cream. I compromise and usually get "light" ice cream, but lately? The only frozen treat I allow myself are Weight Watchers Giant Cookies and Cream bars. More on those another time.

Yesterday in a complete stupor I accidentally put a carton of Dreyer's Slow Churned Yogurt Blend ice cream in my cart. I actually meant to put the No Sugar Added vanilla in my cart but since Sydney had completely worn me out all day yesterday and the night before ... like I said, STUPOR. I realized my mistake by the time I got to the checkout but I didn't care. This had basically the same nutritional info as the reduced sugar, just ten more calories per serving (come to think of it, I didn't check serving sizes to compare. I wonder...). I figured I'd give it a shot with my balsamic strawberries. Anyway, for a 1/2 cup serving it's two Weight Watchers points ... not too bad! I had about a cup serving last night I think (two scoops). It tasted good to me ... it definitely had that yogurt-y flavor in there but it was very mild and as far as texture goes it wasn't as rock-hard as the no sugar added vanilla (I hate that).

Thumbs up! The rest of the container is in trouble at this house!

Strawberries with balsamic vinegar

2009-06-09T09:24:00.001-07:00

Strawberries are in season right now, and at Costco they have these HUGE 5-lb containers of strawberries for about $6. Needless to say, I always have to buy one when I'm there. My intentions are always the best ... I tell myself that I'm going to have fresh strawberries until they're coming out my ears because they're good for me and they're not a lot of WW points. HA!

Yesterday I picked up a new container, thinking that the strawberries in my fridge from last time had probably gone bad. When I got home and went to exchange the old for the new, I found that my "old" container of strawberries was still in good shape and suddenly? I've got TEN pounds of strawberries!

Luckily a blogger buddy of mine recently posted that she'd put balsamic vinegar on her strawberries as a way to flavor and preserve them. HUH? I was just as confused as I was intrigued by this. Don't get me wrong, I love strawberries and I ALSO love balsamic vinegar. The combination just seemed to weird to be good. I googled a recipe (sure enough it's the Italian way to eat strawberries! Mangia! I'm an uncultured redneck!) and used this one as a template for my own little experiment. Hey! I had strawberries to burn and if I didn't end up liking it what did I have to lose?

First I hulled and cut up the strawberries and then gave them a quick rinse. I set aside a smaller bowl to make balsamic strawberries and just sprinkled sugar over the rest in another container to preserve them for later. Then to my bowl I added an easy tablespoon of the balsamic vinegar (I was scared!) and a tablespoon of sugar. The recipe also called for pepper, which I omitted. Then I left the covered bowl on the counter until I could get around to dessert later (it took three hours).
Later when Sydney was sleeping and after I'd eaten my dinner, I spaded a few scoops of ice cream into the bowl and took a tentative bite.

I was pleasantly surprised! I was expecting the sharp taste of vinegar, but instead the strawberries just tasted flat out DELICIOUS! They weren't too sweet or too bitter ... perfection. The marination was the key: the vinegar absorbed into the berries and married the sugar beautifully. I will probably be making this again tonight for my husband when he gets home from his trip (and then making it again and again all summer long!).

Must-have kitchen tool: Ice cream spade

2009-06-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

If you're like me, you LOVE ice cream. Especially when pregnant. When my husband and I first got married it was soon decided (by me) that if I was going to do most of the cooking, he was going to be responsible for making the coffee and scooping the ice cream. He did all right with the coffee-making (despite making an unholy mess every time he did it, ha!) but the ice cream scooping? The man turned out to be a complete WIMP! I have never heard so much whining about ice cream IN MY LIFE! You'd think a man who can bench press more than 200 pounds wouldn't have trouble with a tub of ice cream, but you'd be WRONG. He struggled terribly with the cheap traditional scoops we'd received as wedding gifts. And he WHINED.

Lucky for him I found this little beauty at TJ Maxx Homegoods: a KitchenAid ice cream spade. This spade is much like the scoop of my childhood (my mother is ice cream's #1 fan and has been known to take out an entire half gallon container BY HERSELF in two sittings. I am NOT exaggerating. Anyway, she has one of those old-school all-metal spades like they have at Coldstone or Marble Slab and it's the way we scooped ice cream every night at my house for my ENTIRE LIFE) only better! It slices through ice cream like butter, and has a very comfortable handle. I will never "scoop" ice cream again!

I used our spade for the first time in a long time (thanks to Weight Watchers I'm not eating so much ice cream anymore. Sigh) and I was reminded of how awesome it is! Hopefully I can find an ice cream that won't cost me too many points so it can go back on duty this summer!

Surviving Weight Watchers, Vol. 3: Fiber One Bars

2009-05-26T22:34:00.000-07:00

My friend Joy is a Weight Watchers point-wringing expert and told me that the more fiber a food has, the less points it costs ... something about high fiber balances out fat and calories. I don't know how this magic works out but I don't care ... gimme FIBER! So one day I was perusing my grocery store for packable foodstuffs for in-a-hurry emergencies. I had my iPhone with me (do you have the mobile application, by the way? GENIUS!!), so I entered the nutrition info for these granola bars in the points calculator and guess what? TWO POINTS!! I was even more excited when I actually ate one of these ... they are REALLY good. Lots of chocolate and very tasty.

So? Go to Costco and buy these - in the oats & chocolate flavor - in bulk. Station in your purse/diaper bag/car. SURVIVE.

xoxo, Manda

Disneyland's Cafe Orleans (YUM!)

2009-05-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

My husband grew up going to Disneyland with his family. I went for the first time in 2002 (but I'd been to Disney World as a kid). Yesterday we ate lunch at Cafe Orleans (near the Pirates of the Caribbean ride) and John and his family kept commenting that the food at Disneyland is awesome compared to what it used to be! We feasted on ratatouille with corn cakes and asparagus, frites with garlic and parmesan and spicy aioli, a monte cristo with raspberry preserves that would make you WEEP, French onion soup ... it was AMAZING! Despite the crowds we were seated relatively quickly and ate until we were stuffed for about $40 per couple. If you're at Disneyland any time soon, don't miss out on Cafe Orleans!!

Surviving Weight Watchers, Vol 2: Breakfast muffin

2009-05-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

This is one of the EASIEST things you can make to save yourself from the DOOM of HUNGER!! The key? These amazing Oroweat Double Fiber English Muffins. They should be available at most grocery stores, but I usually grab a few packs when I go to Target (I don't have a Super Target, just a regular one with a limited grocery section). The muffins are ONE POINT for the entire thing!! I often use them instead of a bun for a veggie/turkey burger as a way to shave off a few points. THEY ARE SO AWESOME! I also occasionally spread some The Laughing Cow Light cheese on one if I need a filling snack. It is a great substitute for cream cheese or butter (and as a side note, I HATE SWISS CHEESE! This cheese is very mild and tastes nothing like regular Swiss).

So, here's the recipe, a mere THREE points:

Breakfast Muffin (3 points)

1 Oroweat Double Fiber English muffin, toasted - 1 point
1 serving (1/4ish cup) Quick Egg Whites - 1 point
1 wedge The Laughing Cow Light spreadable swiss cheese - 1 point

I learned a trick about scrambled eggs when I used to work at a bagel shop in college that served sammys on bagels. Use a small microwavable bowl ... plastic or glass will work fine. Spray it with Pam, then pour in your egg mix. Microwave for 2-3 minutes, until you can see that the eggs are cooked on the bottom of the container you're using (there shouldn't be any liquid hanging around in there, unless you LIKE that sort of thing. In which case? GROSS). It might appear that your eggs are going to overflow at some point because they get REALLY puffy in the micro, but don't panic, they go back down and I've never had an accident. When you're done you have PERFECT scrambled eggs already shaped in a circle and you can just flip it onto your sandwich!! No mess, no pans on the stove, no overly dry eggs! I actually prefer to eat scrambled eggs this way, even when NOT on a sandwich!!

Surviving Weight Watchers, Vol. 1: Yogurt with fiber

2009-05-14T17:32:00.000-07:00

Lately I eat based on getting the maximum food for the minimum amount of points on Weight Watchers. I'm going to try and share a few of the recipes I've come up with and foods I've discovered that have helped me lose 21.5 pounds so far! These combinations are filling, taste good and are healthy even if you're NOT on Weight Watchers!! :)

Yogurt with fiber = 3 points

8 oz. Fage Greek Total 0% Yogurt (plain) -2 points
1 tbs. Honey - 1 point
1/2 cup Fiber One cereal - 0 points
1 cup fresh strawberries - 0 points

I often eat this for breakfast or as an afternoon snack when I'm really struggling. Does the job! Strawberries are in season right now so I'm always looking for ways to get through the huge containers I buy at Costco. It's one fruit you can eat a lot of and it hardly costs you anything! YAY!

Hey look! There's FOOD in my food!

2009-02-26T20:07:00.001-08:00

Things are getting all Weight-Watchery around here this week, and since I've been presented with a new eating challenge my creative cook juices have been really flowing! I went walking with a friend on Tuesday who is also on Weight Watchers and she gave me some great tips on how to totally MAX out the amount of food you can cram into your points. Fine by me ... if I didn't love to eat so much I probably wouldn't have to be on WW in the first place! Anyway, she told me that if you make regular oatmeal instead of instant, you get MORE. Also? You can add a tablespoon of brown sugar (1 point) and berries or other fruit. I made myself a bowl this morning and it was only 3.5 points (to give you a comparison, I also ate a 6 oz. container of Yoplait yogurt and that was 4 points. Probably not worth it!)!! The best part was that I was totally FULL after I finished and I didn't have to sacrifice any flavor whatsoever.

I used steel cut Irish oatmeal that I found at Trader Joe's. It takes about 30 mins to cook but MAN was it good! My husband has eaten the leftovers for lunch two days in a row now. It means I have to cook a new batch each morning but I don't mind sharing! :)

After the oatmeal was done, I added 4 tbs. of flax meal. This works out to 1 tb. per serving and added .5 pts. to the meal. It also added Omega-3, lignans, extra fiber and a subtle nutty flavor!!
When it was all mixed together I topped it with the brown sugar and a handful of rinsed blueberries and a handful of pared strawberries (I was curious about how much one of my "handfuls" would be and it was 1/4 cup exactly for each berry. Fun!). And then, I scarfed it all down because my baby was getting antsy!!

Fun finds at Target

2009-01-12T10:34:00.001-08:00

Lately my cooking has been, well, sparse. Instant oatmeal, cold cereal, and fried egg sandwiches usually round out the menu during the first half of my day (and if I get in two meals by 2 p.m. I'm in great shape!). Since I now have a little one in tow, I sometimes try and combine my shopping trips as much as I can, which in recent history has included trying to get all my grocery shopping done at my local (NON-Super) Target. At my standard Target, there is a limited selection of cold foods and a few aisles of dry goods. I usually pick up a gallon of milk, sometimes some half-and-half, sodas ... just regular pantry staples to save myself a trip to Trader Joe's or the uber-expensive Ralph's in our neighborhood (we live near a major airport so our prices are very inflated).

In the last few weeks I've made a marvellous discovery!! Archer Farms Macaroni and Cheese. I picked up a box in the Four Cheese Florentine flavor because the only necessary ingredient was water. I can handle that! You add all the ingredients at once, simmer for 12 minutes, then eat. I made the box while totally and completely distracted by baby, ate half, and fed my husband the other half. SO GOOD!

The next time I went back I picked up the Creamy Tomato flavor, which we loved topped with shaved Parmesan cheese, and also the Porcini Mushroom flavor that we have yet to try. This is a nice alternative to traditional "blue box" mac and cheese (which I'm not a fan of AT ALL but weirdly craved while pregnant). I like Annie's Homegrown organic mac and cheese a lot so if you like that, you might like to try Archer Farms! Fun!

Working person's lasagna

2008-09-07T11:12:00.000-07:00

My mom packed away her cookbook somewhere because she's trying to sell her house and she asked me to email her this recipe yesterday. Since I typed it out I thought I'd go ahead and post it! This is the basic recipe. I usually substitute ricotta for the cottage cheese, a real egg for egg substitute, add lots of extra sauce (I use two jars) and cheese, double the spinach, and use whole wheat noodles. This recipe is so easy and delicious and fun to experiment with! You can also swap out a pound of cooked hamburger for the spinach for a yummy meat lasagna. What is SO AWESOME about this recipe is that you don't have to pre-cook the noodles. I love that. Just don't forget to add the water to the sauce!!

1 28 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
1 t. garlic powder
1 C. water
1/4 t. water
1/4 t. pepper
16 oz. lowfat cottage cheese
1 8 oz. package lasagna noodles, uncooked
1/4 C. egg substitute
1 10 oz. box frozen spinach, cooked and drained
8 oz. part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
vegetable cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375. Spray bottom of casserole dish with cooking spray. Add water to sauce. Mix cottage cheese and egg substitute with garlic powder, pepper, and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Lightly cover the bottom of the casserole dish with some sauce. Place a layer of raw noodles with sauce. Drop spoonfuls of cheese mixture over sauce. Layer spinach. Layer noodles, sauce and cheese mixture and remaining sauce. Bake, uncovered 40 to 50 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cheese over lasagna during the last 15 minutes of baking. 8 servings.

Easy Garden Bake

2008-08-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

When my mom was here last week she busted out my cook book and made one of her old standby recipes: easy garden bake! It was sooooo good. The whole family left yesterday (sniff, sniff), and John and I were starving for lunch after we got back from our hospital appointment so I rifled through the cabinets and discovered that we had enough ingredients for another batch! Don't you just love it when you don't have to go shopping to make something delicious?! I do. The recipe truly is very, very easy. I doubled it so I could use up a lot of ingredients (John brought in about 10 tomatoes from the garden today and we had just a cup of Bisquick left) and so we'd have plenty of leftovers.

Here's the recipe (don't forget, I doubled the recipe to get a full 9x13 pan's worth):

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a square baking dish (8x8x2) or a pie plate.

1 cup chopped zucchini
1 cup chopped tomato
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
-I also added fresh broccoli because we had it in the fridge. I chopped it up pretty small. You could also add potatoes! If you want to add cooked meat like ham, bacon, or sausage you'll probably want to omit the salt and reduce the pepper (which follows).

Sprinkle above ingredients evenly in pan.

In a separate bowl blend 1 minute or until smooth:
1 cup milk
1/2 cup Bisquick baking mix
2 eggs
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
Then pour batter evenly over veggies and cheese. Bake 30-35 mins.* or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting. Serves 6.

*For the double portion, I added an extra 15 minutes to the cooking time and it came out perfectly. As you can tell, John and I took out 6 portions on our own!! We were hungry!

Garden fresh goodness!

2008-08-22T11:14:00.000-07:00

This week while my family's in town we've been feasting (once again) on the fruits of my husband's vegetable garden: green beans and tomatoes!! Can I just say for the record that home-grown tomatoes taste SO much better than store-bought? It's one of the joys of summer. We've had quite a crop this year of Romas, Better Boys, Beefsteaks, and even a few little Early Girls at the beginning of summer. I've made tomato-basil pizza with fresh basil from my herb garden, we've had TONS of great salad and sandwiches with our tomatoes, and we've also eaten easily 10 pounds of green beans from our back yard (and we even shared some with our neighbors!). I love that we got so many beans from a little package that only cost $1.50!! If you live in a climate that can handle it and have the time, veggie gardens are AWESOME!

Here's John and his dog tending the soil:

John enjoying his beans (or waiting to while I take a picture) with some homemade meatloaf!

This week we made tomato and mozzarella salad with fresh basil:

It was so simple to make ... just cubed fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, fresh snipped basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. We GORGED on this!!

We also made beans and potatoes to round out our lunch (the potatoes were from Trader Joe's, as was the fresh mozzarella):

We boiled the beans and potatoes together in salted water, drained, and then added butter and salt and pepper. YUM! I accidentally left my plate of leftovers out in dog range the other day to make a bathroom run and my basset hound ate ALL the rest of my veggies. I was so MAD!!

Pumpkin bread pudding

2008-06-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

This is one my mom has made ... it is SINFUL. I'd like to make it for a special occasion this fall. I'm not sure if this is her exact recipe but it seems very similar.

Ingredients:

Bread pudding
2 cups half and half
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
1 cup (packed) plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
10 cups 1/2-inch cubes egg bread (about 10-ounces)
1/2 cup golden raisins

Caramel sauce
1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
Powdered sugar

Preparation:

For bread pudding: Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk half and half, pumpkin, dark brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and vanilla extract in large bowl to blend. Fold in bread cubes. Stir in golden raisins. Transfer mixture to 11x7-inch glass baking dish. Let stand 15 minutes. Bake pumpkin bread pudding until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare caramel sauce: Whisk brown sugar and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until butter melts. Whisk in cream and stir until sugar dissolves and sauce is smooth, about 3 minutes.
Sift powdered sugar over bread pudding. Serve warm with caramel sauce.

The beauty of banana bread

2008-06-16T19:07:00.001-07:00

What I love about banana bread is that it can take you from this:

To this!

Click here for the recipe.

And sometimes, you crap it up:

2008-06-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

I only baked the pumpkin bread for an hour (the instructions said between 1-1.5 hours) ... I am still figuring out cooking with a gas stove. I have always had an electric before we moved last August, and I quickly learned that gas tends to be a bit hotter faster. Also, I have a bad habit of missing the buzzer and I was afraid of burning the bread.

Welp, today I had the opposite problem. Goo bread. One of the loaves was a bit larger and it sunk in the middle so I tried to save it by putting it in the oven on a cookie sheet for a while: no good. When I sliced into it the top was still batter. So I sliced it into chunks and am in the process of drying it out. The other loaf is in the freezer ... it wasn't as sunken on the top so hopefully it's all right.

Lesson learned? Cooking isn't an exact science.

Revised Mac & Cheese

2008-06-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

I've finally found a more structured recipe for mac & cheese. I made this a few times last month, once for a friend's birthday and then again for a church potluck and both batches were consistent. Hope it works for you!!

Manda's Mac & Cheese

1/2 gallon whole milk
1 box Barilla small elbows
1 stick salted butter
1 (4 cup) package shredded cheddar
1 (2 cup) package Mexican blend cheese
4-6 T. flour
1 block colby jack

Cook macaroni according to package instructions (in salted water, about 1.5 T). Drain in collander and leave in sink until ready to return to pot. DO NOT RINSE!!

Pour entire 1/2 gallon of milk into hot macaroni pot and reduce heat to medium/medium-high. Add stick of butter. Whisk until butter is melted, then add in flour one tablespoon at a time until mix begins to thicken and loses its "grittiness." Add handfuls of cheddar cheese while continuously whisking until you have a combined sauce (note: don't stop whisking, ever!! This is the part that takes a little finesse, but it's important so you don't scorch the milk). Finish with a light handful of the Mexican blend cheese, but don't overdo it. You may want to continue whisking until the sauce reduces a little bit, but you don't have to. At this point I taste the sauce and add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Add the macaroni back into the pot, carefully separating the noodles (they'll be a bit sticky after sitting in the sink a while, but that's good! They will absorb the sauce!!). Take a few minutes and stir well, making sure all the noodles are coated and beginning to soak up the sauce.

Pour the mixture evenly into TWO 8x11 glass dishes. Cube the colby jack cheese and add half to each pan, tucking the cubes into the noodles so they are hidden (about one per scoop -- my husband refers to these lovingly as "cheese bombs"). Top with the remaining Mexican blend cheese and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-30 mins until bubbling. Serves 8-10, depending on how hungry everyone is.

This is an original recipe! If you would like to republish it please do so with my name and a link back to this blog.

[Copyright Amanda Huddle, 2008]

Favorite cooking tool: My big bowl

2008-06-16T15:24:00.001-07:00

My mom got me this bowl from Goodwill when I was in grad school. My husband got violently ill after eating buttered popcorn at the movies about SIX years ago (when we were still dating) and he still can't stand the smell or even consider eating popcorn again, so my big bowl gets used for other various things because of how big it is. I mix up bread batter, serve big salads, chips, I love how much it can hold! It's a pain to handwash sometimes because it's a bit heavy, but I use it weekly!

When Starbucks quits offering pumpkin bread ...

2008-06-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

...the pregnant lady gets baking on a lovely warm June day. Sigh.

I love this recipe (click here to see it). It's so easy ... you just dump all the ingredients in a big bowl, combine, and bake!! It's not Starbucks pumpkin loaf, it's much cakier and doesn't have frosting or nuts, but it helps with my pumpkin craving. These freeze well. Since the recipe makes 2 loaves I'll freeze one for later. My mom and sister are visiting this weekend so it'll be a nice treat!

Dry ingredients:

Don't forget the pumpkin (I almost did):

Everything in the bowl:

350 degrees for 1-1.5 hours:

Couscous salad with spiced mini burgers (from RealSimple)

2008-05-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

I've been holding on to these pictures for about a month. I made this recipe for John and it was a hit! He loved it! My stomach didn't tolerate the spices too well (dang pregnancy!) but the leftovers didn't last long. The recipe made a HUGE bowl of the salad that fed John for days (it helps that he loves leftovers!!)

Here's the recipe link.

This is a great fresh meal if it's hot where you live and you're sick of traditional salads!!

Sometimes to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs, huh? I forget how messy I can be when I cook!

What's for lunch?

2008-04-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

Lately lunch has been an unimportant and ignored meal. I coach track, practice starts at 1:15, and I usually have a late-ish breakfast. Unfortunately, somewhere in the middle of practice I get RAGINGLY hungry! I'm committing to making lunch more of a priority for my pregnant self's sake (oh I guess the baby's sake too, hee hee!). I only had a carton of yogurt and some decaf tea with half-and-half and sugar for breakfast so I HAD to have a substantial lunch today.

I had Trader Joe's organic Shells & White Cheddar, prepped according to the box directions. And yes, I ate it all!

A New Leaf

2008-04-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

Hello, hello food blog!! I haven't visited you in a long time. Why you ask? Well, unfortunately, I haven't been cooking much lately because pregnancy makes you a tired, lazy, take-out orderer. I've made a resolution, though, that I'm going to start blogging about food in an effort to light the fire under myself to do more real cooking before the baby comes.

I'll start with tonight's dinner, which was simply salad and steak! The thing I'm kicking myself about right now is how EASY and CHEAP it is to cook at home and how much better the food is for you. I went to Trader Joe's today and loaded up on fresh veggies and meat, came home, and had dinner on the table in less than 20 minutes. It's just pathetic how easy it was.

First I made the salad. I tore up one romaine heart (it's cheaper than the bag-o-lettuce) threw it in a colander, and rinsed. While that was draining I cut up a tomato, half an English cucumber, and a green pepper. To assemble the salad I blotted the lettuce with a paper towel, then arranged the veggies on top. For a little added protein I grabbed a handful of ciliegine mozzarella balls, squeezed them gently to remove the extra moisture, and then cut them in half to top the salad (a handful on each salad was perfect, and the cheese was definitely domestic so I didn't have to worry about pasteurization). For dressing, I used a drizzle of olive oil, then a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, then salt and pepper. Yum!

Then the steak: I have a great Teflon pan so I love pan-searing steak on the stove. I got some extra-virgin olive oil hot, then prepped the steak (lean Angus sirloin, yum) with some prepackaged Montreal steak seasoning. I cooked the steak about four minutes on each side to get mine RARE and a little longer to get John's medium rare. I think they turned out well!

That was dinner tonight! So easy!

Tomorrow I'm going to try Real Simple's Spiced Mini Burgers and Couscous Salad.

I want to try this recipe!

2007-11-27T20:51:00.000-08:00

Arwen posted this on her site recently. I'm going to try it out the next time someone has a birthday.

Starlight Yellow Cake (from Betty Crocker)

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
1 ¼ cups milk
3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour bottom and sides of rectangular pan (13-inch x 9-inch), or 2 round pans (9-inch diameter), or 3 round pans (8-inch diameter).
2. Beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pans.
3. Bake rectangle 35-40 mins, 9-inch rounds 25-30 minutes, 8-inch rounds 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool rectangle in pan on wire rack; cool rounds 10 minutes, then remove from pans to wire rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
4. Frost as desired.

I can't really think of a frosting I've tried and didn't enjoy, but the frosting I grew up with is buttercream. It is tooth-achingly sweet but delicious. It is what frosting from a can aspires to be.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (from Betty Crocker)

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla 1 to 2 tablespoons milk

1. Mix powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the milk.
2. Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar.

(For Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, increase the vanilla to 2 teaspoons and the milk to 3-4 tablespoons. Follow directions above, adding 3 ounces melted and cooled unsweetened baking chocolate with the vanilla.)

Recipes from Kara

2007-11-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

Over the holiday we visited with our dear friends Nate and Kara and Kara was kind enough to send me these recipes that I'm dying to try!! They told us all about these Governor Bars ... I can hardly wait until Christmas to try them out (we're on a STRICT South Beach Diet until then, dangit). She made us the casserole for breakfast and it was SO GOOD. Why does food have to be SO GOOD sometimes?? AHHH!
--

Governor Bars:
1 cup honey
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies
6 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate chips
12 oz. Butterscotch chips

1. Put Rice Krispies and peanut butter in a bowl.
2. Put honey and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil (just so it bubbles once).
3. Pour honey mixture into bowl with rice krispies/peanut butter and mix it with a spoon.
4. Put mixture into a 13x9 greased pan. I press it down a little bit...not to much.
5. Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in the microwave (about a minute or so) and stir until all melted and mixed together.
6. Spread on top of the rice krispy mixture.
Done! YUM!

Sausage and Rice Casserole:
2 lb. rolls bulk pork sausage
1 lg. onion chopped
2 1/2 c celery sliced
1 1/2 c rice
2 pkgs Lipton chicken noodle soup
5 1/2 c water
1 tsp salt
Toasted almonds slivered

Preheat oven 375
-Brown and drain sausage. Add onions and celery. Cook 5 min till softened.
-Meanwhile, boil water, add rice and soup, cook 20 min covered. Stir a few times, will be moister then regular rice.
-Combine all together in 9x13 casserole. Sprinkle with almonds and bake 20-30 minutes. Can also refrigerate and bake one hour.

My favorite of-the-moment kitchen tool

2007-09-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

This is a The Pampered Chef garlic press. I was first introduced to this tool by my best friend Lily, who is a big-time Pampered Chef fan (and also a big-time garlic fan). I'd tried to use fresh garlic before but it was too hard to chop and my hands would stink for days, so I just resigned myself to garlic salt or dried garlic granules. Then one day John's sister Candice told me that she was going to a Pampered Chef party and asked if I wanted her to order me anything ... I jumped at the chance!! This thing amazes me because you can just stick a clove of garlic in it UNPEELED and it minces it perfectly. It also has a little tool to clean the teeny holes and get the garlic peel out of the compartment. I love this thing! When I'm done I just rinse it and throw it in the dishwasher. Love it.

I also have a Pampered Chef chopper and pizza wheel (more gifts from Candice). I really need to find a Pampered Chef rep!

Easy Chicken Sautee (adapted from The South Beach Diet)

2007-09-15T21:17:00.001-07:00

The basic recipe for this dish does not call for rosemary or mushrooms. Actually, I've modified it so much it's very different from the original. Here's my version: easy and good!

4 chicken breasts
3-4 T. olive oil
3-4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 med onion, sliced and quartered
1 T. rosemary (fresh or dried)
1 cup chicken broth
salt and pepper

Heat up the olive oil in an iron skillet on med-high heat. Rinse and pat dry chicken breasts and sautee in the oil until browned and sealed (3-4 mins each side) add garlic to pan and brown. Add onions and mushrooms and briefly sautee next to chicken. Add chicken broth, rosemary, salt and pepper to taste and cover pan. Cook until the onions are translucent and the rosemary is soft (if using dried). Serve in shallow bowls with broth. John loves this one!!

Lemon Bars

2007-06-01T11:52:00.000-07:00

This is my most popular and most-requested recipe (butter cake is a close second). I got it from Mom's cookbook, and I believe it's the Nordstrom recipe, but I'm not sure. I go heavier on the lemon juice because we like them a little more lemony. GOOD STUFF!

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (divided)
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
3/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind (optional, I never add this)
1/3 cup lemon juice
Powdered sugar

Combine 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup powdered sugar (I don't sift). Cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry blender until mixture resemles coarse meal.

Spoon flour mixture into an ungreased 13x9x2 in. metal cake pan (I use one with a plastic cover for easy transport later). Press the mixture down into an even crust with fingertips. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until crust is lightly browned (if the crust is uneven, it will overcook in certain spots so be diligent).

While the crust is baking, combine the remaining 1/2 cup flour and baking powder, set aside. Combine eggs, 2 cups sugar, lemon rind if desired, and lemon juice (I use at minimum 1/2 cup. I wouldn't recommend using more than 2/3 cup). Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture with a whisk, and pour over baked crust.

Return pan to oven and bake for another 25 mins at 350 degrees (until lightly browned and set). Cool on a wire rack (I have stuck it in the fridge to cool it faster too). Dust lightly with powdered sugar before cutting into squares. Delish!

Make Your Own Pancake Mix from RealSimple Magazine

2007-06-01T11:19:00.000-07:00

This mix has made the best pancakes... and it's a lot cheaper than buying Bisquick! Everyone loves the result, including Henry and Juicy, who have come to expect their miniature "puppy pancake" when John and I sit down to eat ours.

8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons salt

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well. Transfer to a large-mouthed sealable jar or a large resealable plastic bag. May be stored in the pantry up to 6 months.

To make pancakes (makes enough to feed 4, we usually make a half recipe):

Place 2 1/2 cups pancake mix in a large bowl. In a small separate bowl, whisk together two eggs 1 3/4 cold cups milk, and 4 tablespoons butter melted and cooled (I use room temperature vegetable oil and get the same result). Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix. Gently stir until thorougly combined but DO NOT OVERMIX. You want some lumps. Let the batter sit for 5 mins so that baking powder can do its work. Use a measuring cup to pour out 1/2 to 1/2 cup of batter on a clean, hot, medium-heat buttered skillet. Flip when the pancake is dotted with airholes throughout. Once you've turned the pancake, wait about 2 minutes and press lightly on the center of the pancake with spoon. If it feels mushy, it's not done, but if it springs back it's done. EAT!!

Pumpkin Bread

2007-06-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

This is another recipe from one of Mom's old church cookbooks. Tiffany LOVES this stuff. Super easy recipe, just make sure to mix in a huge bowl (I use our popcorn bowl, it's the only one that will fit all the batter because this makes 2 loaves). The book's credit is: Linda Murray, another St. Andrew's lady.

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar
2 tsp. soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
16 oz. pumpkin (1 can)
1 cup cooking oil
2/3 cup water
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease (not oil) and flour 2 loaf pans. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups. Combine all ingredients. Beat at low speed until moistened. Beat a medium speed for 3 minutes. Bake 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Cool five minutes. Remove from pans.

Banana Bread

2007-06-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

This is one of Mom's classic church cook book recipes. She's probably made it hundreds of times and I've made a few loaves myself when the bananas don't get eaten...John just loves it! The book's credit is: Rini Fuller, probably a lady who went to St. Andrew's Presbyterian in Raleigh, N.C. I'll admit straight-away that I never, ever sift...I don't have a sifter!! It still tastes great!

1 3/4 cups sifted flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1/3 cup oil
4 mashed bananas

Use old, over-ripe bananas (almost rotten). Heat oven to 350 degrees. Sift dry ingredients together. Combine eggs, oil, and mashed bananas; add to dry ingredients and beat until smooth. Bake in greased loaf pan for 60 mins. Cool thoroughly before slicing. NOTE: Over-ripe bananas may be purchased at mark-down price then frozen in their skins till ready for use. Thaw on a plate.

Faker's spaghetti sauce

2007-04-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

I made this last night and I thought I'd take a minute to type it out since Ash called me recently and asked me how to make it step by step. There's not a thing wrong with making your spaghetti sauce from scratch, but this is a lot quicker and just as good (in my opinion).

You'll need:
1 lb. lean ground beef (dark ground turkey works too...when I make a big recipe I use both together).
1 medium onion, chopped
2 jars spaghetti sauce (the cheap stuff in cans works fine)
1 big can petite diced tomatoes
garlic salt
chili powder
can of mushrooms (optional)

Saute the ground beef in a big pot or saucepan with the onion until the beef has no more pink and the onion is translucent. If you want additional veggies like green peppers or carrots, saute them with the onion with some oil before you add the meat. If there's a lot of fat, rinse the meat and drain (if you're unsteady draining the meat over the sink freehanded, just dump it into a collander with small holes. Just make sure to rise with warm/cool water so you don' t melt the plastic). Return meat to pot. Add spaghetti sauce and tomatoes and stir (if you want mushrooms, drain them and add at this point too). Add garlic salt and chili powder to taste (1-2 tablespoons of each should be plenty). I also add a few dashes of red pepper flakes at this point too because John likes it a bit spicy.

Serve over thin spaghetti or angel hair (Or whatever!). Voila!

Turkey Meatballs (From The Food Network's Giada Delaurentiis)

2007-03-10T21:05:00.000-08:00

I watched this gal whip these up on her cooking show years ago and tried it out from memory. My early versions were ok, but when I finally found the recipe I blew John away! Apparently, Italians normally use dark turkey for their meatballs in some measure. It definitely makes the meatballs more light and tender... I love the recipe! Here's Giada's site if you want to check her out. http://www.giadadelaurentiis.com/

Turkey Meatballs & Pasta

1 lb. ground turkey (dark meat)
1/2 C. plain bread crumbs
1/2 C. grated parmesan cheese
~ 1 t. garlic salt (less)
1 egg
1 tsp dried parsley

Mix all ingredients together in bowl with hands. Form into 2-inch balls. Sautee in HOT light olive oil, browning the meat on all sides. Add 2 jars of spaghetti sauce (any kind) and simmer while you cook pasta (penne or spaghetti). Remove meatballs from sauce and set aside (keep warm). Add drained pasta to sauce and combine. Serve pasta with meatballs on the side. Makes a lot!

Mac and Cheese

2007-03-10T20:50:00.000-08:00

This is not how Mom made it, but this is based on her original instructions. It's so good. Dang.

Mac & cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Boil and drain about ½ box of macaroni noodles and leave in drainer.

Add butter to hot pot(1/2 -1 stick) and melt it. Turn burner down to medium heat.
Add flour to the pot a tablespoon at a time, and work it in with a whisk until it is all dissolved. 4-6 tablespoons adding one at a time, depending on how thick you want it to be. Salt and pepper to taste while it’s in the pot.
Add milk(if you want it to be amazing, use whole! But you can use 2% too) to pot, about 1/2 gallon...a bit less. Whisk the milk until steam is rising up. Add shredded cheddar (2 cups or so) a handful at a time while whisking. Don't add more until what you just added is mixed into the sauce. If if glops up a little persevere and keep whisking until it combines. When all the cheese is added, turn off the heat and add the pasta back to the pot. Coat with the sauce.

Put into a 9 x 13 or other deep dish. Add chunks of block cheese – 6-8 chunks, and cover with shredded cheddar cheese.

Bake @ 350 for 20-30 minutes (melt cheese).

Guacamole

2007-03-10T20:47:00.000-08:00

Now this one I'm gonna be irritated about if you don't give me credit. :) I made up this recipe myself and it's good stuff! We eat a lot of avocados down in Texas and there are lots of versions, but we prefer the K.I.S.S. method (keep it simple, Stupid!). The more avocado flavor you let through the better, and if you overdo the lemon juice the only way to save the batch is to add more avocado, so be light-handed there.

Guacamole

Mash 4 avocados with a fork or potato masher.
Add 2-4 T of lemon juice.
Garlic salt to taste.
A few dashes of Tabasco sauce.
You can add chopped tomatoes and onion (white or green) if you want.
If you want smoother guacamole add 2T of mayo or sour cream.

Goulash

2007-03-10T20:45:00.000-08:00

I have no idea how to spell it, and I know there are lots of versions of this one, but this is how my Mom made it and how I still make it today. We loved it so much as kids we'd eat a bowl in the morning for breakfast before school the whole week after we'd had it for dinner. It helped to face the cold Illinois winter with a hot bowl of this in your stomach!!

Goulash

In a soup pot over medium high heat sautee the following while you cook ½ box of macaroni noodles (al dente) in a separate pot:

1 lb. hamburger
1 med. Onion
Celery (3 stalks at the most)

Drain grease and rinse.

Add 1 BIG can of V8 juice and ~4-5 cups of cooked macaroni.
Add garlic salt, chili powder, or red pepper flakes to taste. Simmer about 30 minutes.

Fancy Cornbread

2007-03-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

If you're cooking for a man, whip up a side of this with the meal and he'll think you're a genius (worked for me!!). I found this on the back of a box or in a magazine somewhere and wrote it down later from memory. So good.

Fancy cornbread

1 8.5 oz. box Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 can cream style corn
1 can whole corn (undrained)
1 stick melted butter

Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 mins.

Cowboy Food

2007-03-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

I sometimes describe this dish as "baked beans on crack." It is definitely the main course of the meal! This recipe came from a friend of my mother's. I have no idea what it was originally called because we re-named it as soon as we tried it as a family...we could just see cowboys out on the range scraping it up off tin plates with biscuits (and we'll tell ya right now, it tastes better when you use a biscuit as a spoon!).

Cowboy Food

1/2 lb. browned bacon (8 slices) crumbled, set aside

1 1/2 - 2 lbs. hamburger
1 med. onion
Cook together, rinse and drain, set aside.

1/3 C. brown sugar
1/3 C. white sugar
½ C. catsup
1 T. prepared mustard
2 T. molasses
2 cans pork and beans
1 can (16 oz.) butter beans or lima beans
1 can (16 oz.) Northern beans

Mix all ingredients together and bake in 3 quart dish at 350 for 45 mins. (I sometimes make it on the stove like chili, just keep an eye on it while the sauce thickens so you don't get scorched beans on the bottom of the pot)

Corn Pudding

2007-03-10T20:37:00.000-08:00

This was my Grandmother Spickard's recipe. It is a Southern traditional dish served with the turkey at Thanksgiving, the ham at Christmas, and don't forget Sunday dinners! It just doesn't seem like Thanksgiving at our house without this dish. It reminds me of home and childhood and my Grandmother in her kitchen letting me dress the spinach salad or pop the tomato aspic out of the aluminum tins she refrigerated it in. My mom knocks this recipe out of the park!!

p.s. As in most Southern recipes, this one is not even close to low fat, sugar free, or low carb. YUM!

Corn pudding

In greased baking dish (butter or margarine) put ¼-1/3 C. sugar and 1 T. flour - combine.
Add margarine (size of a walnut)
Then beat into this one egg
Add one can cream style corn; mix
Stir in ¼-1/3 C. milk

(Always double this recipe!)

Bake in fairly slow oven on center rack until set.
Oven should be about 325-350 for about 45 mins. to an hour.
Pull in sides to the middle with a spoon to make it cook faster.

Chicken Divan

2007-03-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

Another classic, this one is John's most requested dish! I think this one actually might have been the clincher to getting the ring. :)

Cook 2 packages frozen broccoli spears and
3 chicken breasts (cook separately... I poach them in boiling water with a little salt)
cut into thirds or halves and layer in buttered casserole, broccoli first, then chicken.

Mix 2/3 C. mayonnaise, 1 tsp. lemon juice, I can cream of chicken soup, 2/3 C. milk and pour over chicken and broccoli.

1 C. sharp cheddar cheese on top, then one cup fresh bread crumbs.

Bake about 35-45 mins. at 300 (until it bubbles).

Butterscotch Spider Cookies

2007-03-10T20:31:00.000-08:00

This is hands-down my favorite cookie of all time. I remember having them as a kid and taking forever to eat them because I liked to bite down the chow mein noodles on every cookie! We make them at Christmastime in our family, and I'm pretty sure this recipe is always on the back of the bag of chow meins! Some people like them with chocolate or half-chocolate-half-butterscotch, but I'm a butterscotch girl all the way on this one. You can substitute white chocolate and any kind of nuts you like...it's easy to be creative. So super easy and a great one to make if you have little kids in the kitchen who like to help out!

Spider cookies

12 oz. butterscotch bits
2 c. chow mein noodles
1 c. dry roasted peanuts

Melt bits in microwave. Add chow mein noodles and peanuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Will keep in refrigerator a few weeks, or can freeze.

Black Bean Soup

2007-03-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

My friend Rebecca (the only vegetarian that I have ever met and stayed buddies with, ha!) gave me this delicious recipe! I have made it a few times for John and myself and it's very filling and good.

1 C. salsa (plus extra for garnish)
2 15 1/2 oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed
2 c. broth
sour cream
optional:
1 lime
dry sherry

Heat the salsa in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes.
Stir in the beans and broth. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes. Cool slightly, then spoon half the soup into a blender and puree.
Return the pureed soup to the saucepan and heat through.
Serve with sour cream, additional salsa, and a squeeze of lime (if using). Or stir in 1 to 2 T. dry sherry into each serving.

Beef Stroganoff

2007-03-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

This is hands-down my most-requested to Mom. When she asked me what I wanted to eat for any special occasion, this was it!

You will need:
1 lb. stew beef (you can get pre-cut meat in packs at the grocery store…it will be marked “stew” or “kebab”. I’d get between 1.5-2 lbs.)
Flour
1 medium onion
Beef boullion cubes or beef broth (2 cans)
8 oz. sour cream
Dried parsley
Dry mustard
Salt and pepper
1 package egg noodles (No Yolks for less cholesterol)

If your meat is not already pre-cut, cut into bite sized pieces.
Cut up one medium onion.
Sautee together with a small amount of oil over medium-high heat.
Add one T flour and stir. Then add one and a half cups of water. Mix.
Melt beef boullion in a small amount of boiling water (in microwave). Or just open up cans of beef broth. Add to mixture.
Add one or two T sour cream to mixture. You will add the remainder of the 8 oz. container at the end just to heat.
Add one T dried parsley.
Add one T dry mustard ( I use more!! Add to suit your taste)
Salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer (low heat) while you cook the noodles in a separate pot. Drain noodles.
Add the remaining sour cream and heat but don’t boil.
You can always add a little water and simmer if it gets too thick.
Serve on top of noodles. Goes well with spinach!

Tortilla Soup Giraud (From Cooking With Texas Highways)

2007-03-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

I have made this recipe several times for our college and career discussion group (who John and I lovingly call "Our Friday Night Kids"). It's always a hit! The first time I made it I followed the recipe exactly and it was a little bland...needed salt. Since then I've amped up the spice requirements and I use chicken breasts and boullion to make a quick broth while poaching the meat. I also use the Pampered Chef chopper that John's sister Candice got for me on ALL the veggies (including the potatoes and the chicken when I'm feeling lazy!). It makes quick work of all that chopping!

According to the book, this recipe is Lady Bird Johnson's. I like that it's tortilla soup without the tortillas (traditionally, the recipe actually has dissolved corn tortillas in it...not my cup-a-tea, which is why I prefer this one).

Tortilla Soup Giraud

Serves many...can be stretched far!!

1 1/2 medium onions, diced
1 green pepper, diced
vegetable oil
2 carrots, sliced in thin rounds (I dice these...they cook faster that way)
1/4 bunch celery
2 potatoes, diced (Yukon Gold works well)
3 1/2 qt. chicken stock, heated
2 T. chili powder (more)
2 T. ground cumin (more)
1 tsp. white pepper
1 tsp. granulated garlic
3/4 C. garbanzo beans (which is about half the can, but I use the whole can)
1 lb. cooked and boned chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
2 T. chopped fresh cilantro
salt to taste (a tablespoon?)

Garnishes:
tortilla chips (Tostito's Gold work best...they don't get soggy as quickly)
thinly sliced lime
avocado
Mexican blend cheese

I start this one by poaching 2 lbs. of chicken breasts in my big stock pot (about half full of water). I add some salt and a few bouillon cubes with the chicken. When the chicken is done, remove it to a cutting board so it will cool. When it's cool-ish I roughly chop and shred it with a sharp knife and a fork into bite sized pieces.

While the chicken is cooking:
Saute onion and green pepper in a small amount of oil 1 minute. Add carrots, celery, and potatoes; saute 2 minutes. Then add to hot chicken stock and add your spices; simmer 5 to 10 minutes or until veggies are tender.

Stir in garbanzo beans, chicken and cilantro; heat an additional 5 mins. or until ready to serve. Ladle into warm bowls and garnish with tortilla chips, lime, cheese and avocado.

Butter Cake

2007-03-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

I might get in big trouble from my mother-in-law Melody for sharing this special recipe on the internet, but I have to! To set the record straight, this is her version of the church recipe swap classic that goes by many names (I've also heard it called "Gooey Butter Cake"). I've made so many butter cakes (sometimes multiple Butter Cakes in one day!) that I long ago lost track...I haven't met a single person who has said "Ew, I don't really like this" but instead am usually met with demands for the recipe after someone has become addicted! All our friends and family are familiar with this one. It's thin and buttery, sweet and salty and has this inexplicable crunchiness to the top with gooeyness underneath. Try it and you'll understand why it's called Butter Cake!

Bottom layer:
1 softened stick of butter
2 eggs
1 box yellow cake mix

Whip all this up with a hand mixer and spread evenly on a cookie sheet (a normal sized one with raised sides) with a spatula.

Top layer:
1 lb. powdered sugar (half of a 32 oz. bag)
1 8 oz. package of cream cheese
2 eggs

Whip it all up with a hand mixer and spread on top of bottom layer! Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on how gooey you want it to be (less baking equals more goo). Place some foil on the rack underneath it in the oven because it might drip over the sides a little bit. Let it set and cool before you cut it into squares and eat it! YUM!

Taco Soup

2007-03-08T21:08:00.000-08:00

I got this recipe from Angela Sesin, who is one of our former YoungLife committe members here in McAllen and is also a straight-up, down-home, Texas gal at heart. She had two Crock Pots full of this delicious soup waiting for us one night when we had a staff night at her home. It was so good I had to ask her for the recipe...she just told it to me that night and I ran out to the car to write it down. So simple and so good! My husband's brother-in-law Jonathan just loves this one.

Taco Soup

(serves 6-8)

1 pound ground beef -- sautee in your soup pot (if it's not lean, rinse and drain all the fat),
then add the following (DON'T DRAIN ANY CANS!):
1 can corn
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans whole pinto beans
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 packet of ranch dressing mix (dry)

Stir and simmer on med-high heat for 20 mins or so, until it's hot throughout. As it cooks more liquid will come out of the veggies and beans, but if you want a "soupier" soup you can add a half a can of water.

Serve topped with thick corn chips (Frito Scoops or Tostitos Gold) and top with Mexican blend shredded cheese and sour cream if you want. YUM!

Greek Fritatta (from RealSimple mag)

2007-03-08T19:14:00.000-08:00

(serves 4)

3 tablespoons olive oil
10 large eggs
2 teaspoons kosher salt* (less)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 5-oz. bag baby spinach
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
4 scallions** (white and green parts), thinly sliced
8 oz. feta, crumbled

Heat toaster oven (if you don't have one a regular oven will work fine) to 350 degrees F. Add the oil to a 2-quart casserole and transfer to oven for 5 mins. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt, and pepper. Add the spinach, tomatoes, and scallions and combine. Gently stir in the feta. Remove casserole dish from oven. Pour egg mixture in the casserole. Bake until the frittata is browned around the edges and slightly puffed and a knife comes out clean, 25 to 30 mins.

*I used the full amount of salt for this and it was a little salty, probably because of the feta. I'll use a bit less next time.
**my mom tells me that green onions and scallions are most likely the same thing :)

Easy Minestrone (From RealSimple mag, with my adjustments)

2007-03-08T19:11:00.000-08:00

(serves 4)

1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes undrained
1 32-oz container low-sodium chicken broth
1 15-oz. can kidney beans (optional)
1 15-oz can white (cannelonni) beans
1 9- or 16-oz. bag frozen green beans1 5-oz. bag fresh spinach OR one 9- or 10-oz. box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and excess water squeezed out
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
garlic salt or minced (I used freeze-dried) garlic to taste*
1/2 cup shaved or shredded parmesan
crusty bread

In a large pot, over medium heat, bring the tomatoes and their juices to a simmer. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the broth, white beans, and kidney beans (if using) and bring to a simmer. Add the green beans and cook until heated through, about 3 mins. Add the spinach, salt, and pepper (if you want garlic, go ahead and add it at this point) and stir until wilted. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with the parmesan. Serve with slices of the bread.

*The original recipe for this one does not call for garlic but I added some because it didn't have enough kick for me! I figured that all Italian cooking has garlic in it anyway so it couldn't hurt. I ended up adding a few dashes of garlic salt and about a teaspoon of minced freeze-dried garlic and the result was good! If you prefer fresh garlic you'll probably want to sautee it in the bottom of the pot before you add the tomatoes with a little olive oil.