The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza day 320-326 (week 47)
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday week! A little odd for us…
William was off school all week, so he was home, and he was BORED, but he was good. He read every day, practiced his guitar, did his chores, and stayed out of trouble.
It was a short week for Mike and I, because of the holiday, doctor’s appointments, and a little time off. I took off Friday so I could go Black Friday shopping, ended up doing more online shopping than in-person shopping, but it was nice to not have to worry about work. Seems I went a little overboard though, didn’t leave a whole lot of cash until next payday! Good news is I only have two more people to shop for, and I have at least one idea for one of them, something I can get any time between now and Christmas! And I have two things to make, gotta get busy, but then I am DONE!!
James decided to start his holiday early, so we haven’t actually seen him since Tuesday, hope he had a good holiday!
We were supposed to go to Mom’s for Thanksgiving dinner, but Mike and William both started coming down with something, and we didn’t want to expose my folks to it, so Wednesday night we made the mad dash through Walmart getting all the stuff we didn’t have on hand to make dinner Thursday!
Anyway, on to the food….
Monday
Pork chops
Simply pan fried with a little butter, nothing fancy.
Steamed veggies, broccoli and peas, the usual.
Rolls, the canned kind.
Mike ended up cooking for me, because I worked a little late to help with a project.
Tuesday
Chicken and Black Bean Homemade Burritos
3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup taco seasoning mix
1 quart water
Tortillas
Shredded cheese
Put the chicken, black beans, taco seasoning and water into the crock pot in the morning, let it cook all day on LOW.
Remove chicken from pot, shred. Remove black beans from pot.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lay out tortillas. Sprinkle with shredded cheese, spoon in a little shredded chicken and some black beans, roll into burritos, place in a large baking pan. Repeat until you use up all the chicken and beans, or run out of room in your pan, whichever comes first. Top with a little more shredded cheese. Bake about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve with a side of ranch or sour cream or guacamole, whatever you like! Salsa works well, too.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
1 Bag frozen Brussels sprouts (I used frozen this time because I wasn’t sure when I would make these, they were a little softer than fresh, but tasted OK)
4 slices bacon
1/2 C dried cherries
1/4 C chopped or sliced nuts of your choice (I prefer pecans, but I had almonds on hand)
Remove stems from sprouts, and cut into quarters.
Cut bacon into small pieces and cook until crispy. Remove from pan, but don’t pour off grease. Add cut sprouts to pan, saute lightly until slightly browned and heated through. Toss bacon, cherries and nuts into pan, mix well, heat another minute or two.
Pour everything into a baking dish of your choice, bake at 350 degrees 45-55 minutes, or until well browned and very soft. Serve!
Wednesday
Jet’s Pizza
Thursday
Thanksgiving Dinner
Turkey – rubbed with butter, sprinkled with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning, DO NOT TRUSS or stuff, roast at 350 degrees per package directions – my 10 pound turkey said it needed to cook 2 hours, I didn’t believe it, so I cook it 3, it was dry, but tasty!
Potatoes – 6 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks, boiled about 45 minutes or until very soft. Drain, add in 1 stick butter, maybe 1/2 C milk, more if you like them creamier, mix with hand blender until smooth and creamy!
Sweet potatoes
1 can yams
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 stick butter cut into pieces
Pour yams WITH JUICE into a casserole dish. Sprinkle over brown sugar, place pats of butter around pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until heated through and bubbly.
Rolls
Store bought frozen rolls, sorry!
Gravy
Turkey drippings, gravy packet from the turkey, plus some poultry gravy mix.
Broccoli
Green beans
Peas
Stuffing
Boxed, sorry again, but remember, I didn’t PLAN on cooking at all!!
Cranberry sauce
Friday
Subway
Saturday
Mini Pizzas – frozen, but good!
Cheese Sticks – frozen
Cheese bites – frozen
Sunday
Pot Roast with Potatoes
1 roast of your choice, I went for a tip roast this time, I like them
1/4 cup onion flakes
3 packets beef flavor Flavor Boost
1 quart water
4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
Put everything in the crock pot, set on low for 6-8 hours, remove and serve!
Steamed veggies
The usual, broccoli and peas with butter
Gravy
Strained the juices from the pot, mixed in some brown gravy mix, YUM!
And of course, I did my nails over the weekend, so here’s this week’s design…
Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza day 313-319 (week 46)
Hello again friends, and welcome back! It’s been an interesting week… nothing Earth-shattering, just interesting.
Work has been really busy, which I can only think is NOT a good thing considering what I do, that means the foreclosure business is booming, or maybe things are just moving better through the courts, but whatever is going on, it can’t be a good sign for the economy.
And of course, there was all the post-election stuff going on, the stock market dropping, businesses laying people off, Hostess closing, just kind of a depressing week all the way around.
BUT, William had a really good week at school, things are going very well for him, he’s enjoying his classes, and getting good grades. Absolutely cannot complain!
Mike had a good week at work, things are picking up, they are finally keeping him almost busy, and he spent all day yesterday working on his guitar. Took his birthday money and bought some new pick-ups, a new pick guard, and he’s really happy with the results.
I’ve been fairly busy working on jewelry, too, but I need to get better at getting OFF the computer at night and doing things I LIKE instead of wasting so much time on Facebook. I mostly work on new pieces on my lunch hour at work, but I spent about 3 hours last night making clay beads, which was more fun than I remember, and then a few hours today making jewelry from some of those beads, so I feel like I had an extra special day! And, I still got the laundry done, cleaned up the kitchen, and did my nails. GOOD DAY!
So, on to the food….
Monday
Baked BBQ Pork Chops
4 boneless pork chops
About 3 cups BBQ sauce of your choice
1 Tsp garlic powder
Put the pork chops in a roasting pan, sprinkle with garlic powder, pour over BBQ sauce, cover and bake at 350 degrees for at least an hour, or until chops are done through and sauce is bubbly. Serve!
Ratatouille (this was fun!)
1 smallish yellow squash
1 smallish zucchini
1 Chinese eggplant
2 Tbsp dried onion flakes
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 cup tomato sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1/4 cup Parmesan
Italian seasoning blend
Using a mandolin slicer, slice the squash and eggplant very thin. Spray a 13″ x 9″ casserole dish with olive oil flavor cooking spray. Pour the tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan, sprinkle with the onion flakes and garlic powder. Liberally salt and pepper. Lay the slices of squash and eggplant on the sauce, alternating each type of veggie, overlapping each, all the way around and in the center. (sort of like in the movie, looks a little like a fan) Salt and pepper, sprinkle with a few Tbsp Parmesan. Layer more veggies, salt and pepper, Parmesan. Repeat until you have about 3 to 4 layers, or you run out of veggies. Sprinkle with remaining olive oil and any remaining Parmesan, and sprinkle with Italian seasoning blend. Cover with aluminum foil, cook at 375 degrees for 45 to 55 minutes, or until tomato sauce is bubbling up around the edges of the veggies. Serve!!
Fried Potatoes
2 leftover Perfect Baked Potatoes
Sour cream, about 1/2 cup
Parmesan, about 1/2 cup
2 Tbsp butter
Salt and pepper
Chop potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add potatoes and fry until they start to brown a little. Skin on or off is entirely up to you! Once the potatoes are heated through and just a very little browned, remove from heat, stir in sour cream and Parmesan. Serve!
Chocolate Chip Cake with Chocolate Pudding Pokes
Basic Yellow Cake recipe
3/4 c butter
3 eggs
2 1/2 c all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 c milk
1/2 c chocolate chips
Allow butter and eggs to sit at room temp for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, grease and flour 9″ x 13″ baking pan.
In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter on medium for 30 seconds. Gradually add in sugar, beating on medium, until well combined. Scrape sides of bowl, beat two minutes more. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk, beating on low after each addition, just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread batter into prepared pan.
Bake 25-30 minutes for 9″x13″ pan (I actualy had to put this back in for an extra 20 minutes before it was done, so I cooked 50 minutes)
Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool completely in pan before frosting.
When cooled, poke holes in the cake with the handle of a wooden spoon.
Prepare instant chocolate pudding to package directions, family size package. Pour over cake, making sure it gets into those holes and leaks down the sides a little. Allow to cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes before serving. YUM!
Tuesday
Ranch Fried Chicken, Bacon and Tomato sandwich
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 pkgs ranch dressing mix
2 cups flour, divided
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 pound bacon
1 large tomato, sliced
Cut the bacon into about 1/2″ wide pieces, cook until crispy, remove to paper towel lined plate to drain, set aside.
Trim any excess skin or fat from the chicken, cut into chunks, then pound those to about 1/4″ thickness between two sheets of plastic wrap.
Put 1 cup plain flour in one wide shallow bowl.
Put the eggs, beaten, into another wide shallow bowl.
Mix the other cup of flour, ranch dressing mix, and a little salt and pepper, in a third wide shallow bowl.
Dip each piece of chicken first in the plain flour, then in the egg, then in the seasoned flour. Fry in shallow oil over medium heat until golden brown and crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain excess oil while cooking remaining chicken. I can usually do 3-4 pieces at a time.
Serve on bread, toasted or not is up to you, with bacon, tomato and your choice of sauces. YUM!
Wednesday
Jet’s Pizza
Thursday
Chicken and Sausage with Tomato Sauce
3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 rope Kielbasa
1 Jar spaghetti sauce
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning blend
1/8 Tsp red pepper flakes
1 Tsp orange Everglades seasoning
1 Jar (that sauce jar!) water
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
Cut the sausage into roughly 2″ pieces. Don’t cut the chicken, in fact, frozen works really well for this.
Put everything in a crock pot, mix a little, cook on LOW 8-10 hours. Using a slotted spoon, fish out the chicken, which should be falling apart at this point, the sausage and beans, put on a serving platter.
Serve with rice or pasta, your choice, and a little of the sauce from the pot poured over each serving.
Parmesan Orzo
1/2 box Orzo style pasta
1 stick butter
1 c Parmesan
Cook pasta to package directions. Drain. Melt butter in the hot pan, add back in pasta, and add Parmesan. Mix well and serve!
Steamed Veggies
Friday
Burritos and Taquitos
Frozen ones, sorry, no recipe this time!
Saturday
Taco Bell
Yes, we ate out. I just didn’t feel like cooking after working half the day, then housework, just didn’t have it in me! But, once I ate dinner, I made…
Chicken soup
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 pkts chicken flavor Flavor boost
2 pkts vegetable flavor Flavor boost
4 quarts water
2 Tbsp green Everglades seasoning
1 Tsp garlic powder
1/2 bag frozen green beans
1/2 bag frozen sliced carrots
1/2 c frozen peas
1/2 box Orzo style pasta
In a LARGE stock pot, pour in water, add flavor packets and spices, mix well. Add in chicken. Cook over LOW heat about 2 hours. Increase heat so that water boils, add in pasta, cook about 15-20 minutes, or until pasta is well done. Reduce heat again, add in veggies, cook another 30 minutes. Remove from heat, serve, or allow to cool and put into serving size containers. Freezable!! This made about a dozen large servings, about the same size as Chunky soup cans, but a lot better for you.
Sunday
Breakfast for Dinner
Bacon, cooks crispy
Scrambled eggs with cheese
Crescent Rolls
Simple, quick meal that everyone loves. I added a sliced tomato to my plate, but I’m the only one that likes them…
Apple Banana Dessert
1 small apple
1/4 cup dried banana slices
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 C old fashioned oats
Core apple, cut into wedges, then slice the wedges into very small slices. Put into a microwave safe bowl. Add in the dried banana slices. Top with the butter and brown sugar. Microwave 1 minute, mix well, microwave another 4 minutes. Allow to cool at least 5 minutes before serving! Top with a little ice cream, YUM!!!
Anyway, that’s it for this week. Hope you found something you want to try!!
Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 292 – 298 (Week 43)
Starting to count down to the end of the year, only 9 weeks to go. Can you believe it, less than 2 months until Christmas! And I actually bought my first few presents this weekend. One for my mom, and a couple for Mike.
It was kind of a slow week. Work was work, William had a good week at school, Mike had a good week at work, and James is James… nothing exciting really. I did finish my second beaded cuff, so that was cool! Here’s some photos…
And I spent today putting together some more bases for more cuffs. Don’t know why I was so afraid of this style of beadwork, it’s FUN!!
And I did my nails for Halloween!
It’s kind of a burnt orange color with black tips and black swirly stickers with sparkles!
Anyway, since there really isn’t much gossip, on to the food. Even that is a little flat this week, I’m having a hard time getting inspired lately, cooking wise anyway. But, since I got a little raise with my review last week, maybe next pay day I can splurge on some new ingredients and maybe a cook book, get some fresh stuff to share!
Monday
Grilled pork chops
6 boneless skinless pork chops
Everglades original seasoning (the green one)
Preheat your George Foreman grill to MEDIUM. Sprinkle a little (how much is really up to you, but this stuff is salty!) Everglades seasoning on each side of the chops. Put 3 at a time onto your grill, and cook until no longer pink inside, and crispy grilled on the outside. Repeat with the remaining chops, and serve when done!
Steamed veggies, the usual, broccoli and peas.
Tuesday
Alfredo Chicken Pasta
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 jar alfredo sauce
1 box Dream Fields angel hair pasta
Trim any excess skin and fat off the chicken breasts. Cut into small bite-sized pieces. Heat a large skillet to medium, add in 2 tbsp vegetable oil, add in chicken. Cook until no longer pink, add in alfredo sauce. Reduce heat and simmer on LOW while you cook pasta to package directions. Drain pasta and put past, chicken and sauce all together in the empty pasta pot, mix well and serve!
Steamed veggies, broccoli, peas and carrots…
Wednesday
Pot Roast
1 2-3 pound sirloin tip roast (or whatever cut you prefer)
1 pkg french onion soup mix
1 quart water
Put the roast in a crock pot, add in soup mix and water, should NOT cover roast. Set pot to LOW and cook 8-10 hours.
Remove roast, drain broth into a sauce pan, straining out onion pieces if desired. You should have about 3 cups of broth, maybe 4, depends on how much steam your crock pot releases. Add in gravy mix per package directions, heat over medium, stirring frequently. Bring to a boil, cook one minute, remove from heat and serve!
Baked Potatoes
I actually cheated a little on this one, I used the microwave, but they came out OK. For each 1 pound potato (these are the really big ones!), wash well, rub with a little oil, sprinkle with salt, poke some holes, cook 10 minutes on high, or until done through.
Thursday
Jet’s pizzza
Friday
Sonny’s BBQ
Saturday
Free for all!
I had leftover taco meat mixed with black beans, added some diced tomatoes, and added some shredded cheese. It was actually really good!
Sunday
Kim’s Chicken Casserole
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed if needed and cut into bite sized pieces
2 packages stove top stuffing mix
12 slices Swiss cheese
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Wash and drain chicken. Lightly butter 13 X 9 X 2 casserole dish
Prepare stuffing: Put all the dry ingredients in the casserole dish. Heat 3 cups water with 1 stick of butter for 5 minutes in the microwave, pour over dry ingredients and mix well.
Mix chicken with soup.
Lay cheese on top of stuffing, top with chicken and soup. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
This serves 6 – 8 people
Glazed Carrots
1 C frozen crinkle cut carrots
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 C brown sugar
Cook on high about 5 minutes in the microwave, stir and serve!
Peas
Steamed frozen peas, done in the microwave with a little butter, about 5 minutes on high from frozen on about 1 C peas.
So, not a HUGE food week, but a GOOD food week. I got a few odds and ends when I went shopping, going to try some quick dinner ideas I’ve seen recently, see if they turn out as good as they look… I’ll keep you posted!
See you next week!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 285 – 291 (Week 42)
WOW, can you believe, I’ve been at this since January 2nd, 42 weeks now! I’ve never stuck with any project this long, unless you count marriage as a project, but I have help there. This one has been almost all mine!
So, this past week, let’s see…
Mike’s “wonderful” co-worker left, so he’s a happy camper. Taking on her clients, rearranging his schedule to fit them in, I think it’s going to be much cooler for him, he’s been bored for a while. He already seems happier at home, too, so that makes ME happy!
William had a good week at school. Short week because it was the end of the grading period, so he got Friday off. He slept in, and didn’t really do much, says he was bored. Wish I had known they were going to end up postponing my review until this coming Tuesday, I would have taken the day off to hang out with him! He hung out with his best buddy for half the day Saturday and Sunday, so I think that made up for the boring Friday. Back to school tomorrow…
My week was kind of fun! Organized a Boss’ Day celebration on Tuesday, pulled together 6 groups that all do the same thing, just for different managers, but all under one senior manager. Have to say, I won’t do it again, too many negative people where I work, but the folks that participated were great!! Then, on Wednesday, my new friend at work decided the job just wasn’t for her, so she quit. Kind of sucks, she was fun! The rest of the gang is pretty cool, so we’ll be OK and all, but I was a little bummed. And I was the only one she came to say goodbye to, so I hope she finds a way to keep in touch! Work itself is starting to settle into a routine, I feel more comfortable, actually looking forward to my first review as an employee and not a temp!!
And we won’t even talk about James, he’s never here anymore, kind of feels like a boarder rather than my kid. Oh well…
Mike and William vacuumed today, that was cool. I swept and mopped the kitchen floor, my back was killing me! But the kitchen feels so much nicer now. Scooped the cat box, changed the paper we keep under it (she misses sometimes, but she’s getting much better since we got the new litter box!). Finished laundry early, that was nice. So chores done early, I spent the rest of the day beading! Check out my first bead embroidered cuff…
Anyway, on to the food! That’s why we’re all here afterall! We ate out a couple of times, got a little lazy, but we’ve all committed to eating at home more, so I guess we needed to have this week to make that choice.
Monday
Free for all!
We had all the leftovers from the weekend, the pizza muffins, meatball muffins, pigs in a blanket, rolls, veggies, etc., so we sort of had to have a little bit of everything to clean out all the bags and containers from the fridge!
Of course, I still wanted to make something, and I had picked up a couple of sweet onions on my last shopping trip, so I made…
Onion Straws
2 large sweet onions
1 cup flour
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp pepper
Cooking oil for frying
Remove outer skin from onions, leaving root side on to keep the onion together. Using a Mandolin type slicer, slice the onion VERY thin, place on paper towels to remove some of the excess liquid. Let sit for about 10 minutes. Separate onions as much as possible, put into a large wide shallow bowl, sprinkle over flour, salt and pepper. Mix well, trying to separate as much as you can without pulling each onion out individually. You will end up with these cool little lumps that kind of look like mini bird nests when you fry them.
Heat some cooking oil in a large skillet over medium to medium low heat, I set my stove on about 4. Pull out some small clumps or individual onion strands, add them a few at a time into the oil, and cook a couple minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Remove to a plate or bowl lined with paper towels, sprinkle with salt if desired.
Tuesday
Pizza hut – Mike got a special offer in his e-mail, 2 large 3 topping pizzas delivered for $8 each, so we had to…
But I HAD to do something, so I made up my fruit salads for the week. I had papaya, red and green grapes, and a red pear.
Wednesday
Italian Chicken Pasta
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 pkg Italian flavor Philadelphia cooking cream
1 Pkg Dream Fields angel hair pasta
Salt and pepper to taste
Trim any excess skin or fat from the chicken, cut into small bite sized pieces. Heat a couple tbsp of cooking oil in a skillet over medium heat, add chicken and cook until no longer pink.
Meanwhile, boil the water for the pasta. This pasta takes literally 6 minutes to cook, so don’t start it too soon! Once the chicken is cooked, drop your pasta into boiling water and set your timer for 6 minutes.
Add the cooking cream, salt and pepper to the chicken pan, stir it well, the cream will liquify. Reduce heat to low until pasta is done.
Drain the pasta, and add it to the chicken pan, toss with tongs, and serve!!
We also had some side stuff, like chopped tomatoes, steamed broccoli and steamed peas, so we made this into a make-your-own-bowl kind of night. Everyone got chicken with sauce and pasta, but then we could each add what we wanted, so I had tomatoes and broccoli in mine, Mike went for just broccoli, William added peas to his, so we all got a good meal!
Thursday
Chicken Bacon Ranch Wraps
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 lb bacon
8 soft taco size tortillas
1 pkg ranch dressing mix
Prepared ranch dressing
Cut bacon into small pieces, cook over medium heat until crispy, remove to paper towel lined plate, and set aside.
Trim excess fat and skin from chicken, and cut into small bite sized pieces. Saute in a few tbsps of the bacon grease over medium heat until cooked through. Add in 1 pkg ranch dressing mix, mix well until you have a sort of ranch sauce in the pan, remove from heat to serving bowl.
Spoon about 2 – 3 Tbsp chicken into a tortilla, sprinkle over 1-2 Tbsp crispy bacon pieces, squirt on a little bit of prepared ranch dressing and add some shredded cheese if desired (or some leftover onion straws, that was YUMMY!), roll up and serve!
Friday
Five Guys burgers…
Saturday
Meatball Subs
Remember all those meatballs I made last weekend, (2 lbs worth!), well, we still have a few left, so I put them in the crock pot for about an hour with a jar of spaghetti sauce, cooked them on HIGH, and put them on some steak rolls with shredded cheese… YUM! And a nice change from our usual Saturday night over-indulgence.
Then we had microwave chocolate chip cookies with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, OH YEAH! Wish I had gotten a couple of photos… oh well!
Microwave Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp white sugar
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Egg yolk
3 drops vanilla
Mix these together in a small bowl.
Add in 1/4 cup flour and mix well.
Add in 2 Tbsp chocolate chips and mix again.
Spray a ramekin or small bowl with butter flavor cooking spray, put your cookie dough into this prepared bowl. Cook on HIGH 50 seconds. Top with a scoop of ice cream if desired, or whipped cream, or nothing! They are great by themselves!!
Sunday
Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Yes, we had Sunday breakfast, and it was GOOD!
1 3/4 C flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tsp baking powder
1/4 Tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 2/3 cups milk (I like mine a little thinner, the recipe actually called for 1 1/2)
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Mix everything together in a large bowl, mix well!
Heat a large skillet over medium heat, about a 4 on my stove. Pour about 1/2 cup at a time of your batter into the skillet, cook about 1 minute per side, or until golden brown. Remove to a serving plate, butter while warm, serve with syrup! (and bacon of course!!)
Grilled pork chops
6 boneless skinless pork chops
Everglades original seasoning (the green one)
Preheat your George Foreman grill to MEDIUM. Sprinkle a little (how much is really up to you, but this stuff is salty!) Everglades seasoning on each side of the chops. Put 3 at a time onto your grill, and cook until no longer pink inside, and crispy grilled on the outside. Repeat with the remaining chops, and serve when done!
Stuffing
I made chicken flavor box-mix stuffing, because that’s what I had, and that’s what Mike wanted tonight. Made to package directions in the microwave while the chops were cooking, worked out well!
Glazed Carrots
1 C frozen crinkle cut carrots
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 C brown sugar
Cook on high about 5 minutes in the microwave, stir and serve!
Peas
Steamed frozen peas, done in the microwave with a little butter, about 5 minutes on high from frozen on about 1 C peas.
Green Beans with Almonds
1 bag frozen cut green beans
4 Tbsp butter cut into pieces
About 3 Tbsp slivered almonds
Put the green beans and butter in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH 7 minutes. Add in almonds, let sit while completing the rest of the meal, serve warm!
So that’s it for this week. I’m off tomorrow, looking forward to having the place mostly to myself, working on my second bead embroidered cuff, started it before I finished the last one, and I’m really excited! I’ll have some photos later in the week…
Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 271 – 277 (Week 40)
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Hope you’ve all had a perfectly wonderful week, and a glorious weekend! Here we are at Monday again, I know, I’m behind, but I think you’ll forgive me…
Last week was interesting. Work was crazy, end of the month always is, but this one was crazier than the last few. Half our group is new people, less than 3 months in, and the senior coordinator was out for the week, so I became the go-to person. I know I am approachable, I try very hard to be that way, but I felt like there were whole days where I didn’t get any of my own work done because I was so busy answering everyone else’s questions! It’s nice to be needed again, but come on…
Anyway, all the family were relatively healthy for a change, knock on wood! William didn’t miss any school. Mike missed one day of work, but I think it was more of a mental health kind of day. James got called in for extra hours at his job, makes for a nice pay check. I think I need to plan a day off, just for me…
So I did a little cooking during the week, nothing Earth shattering, but some fun new dishes. Of course, I pretty much HAD to cook considering I spent almost $500 in groceries last weekend. But it all came in handy, and I got to try out the new recipes! YEAH! Looking forward to trying even more new stuff this weekend, trying to put together a plan for what I want to cook, make sure I have everything I need on hand. Working on trimming down the shopping list, trimming down the grocery budget, and maybe trimming down the family a little!
Anyway, here we go…
Monday
Mongolian Beef
1/2 lb beef tenderloin, thinly sliced against the grain
1 Tbsp corn starch
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 tsp ground ginger
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp honey or agave nectar or sugar
1 tsp rice wine or dry sherry
2 Tbsp water
3 green onions, cut into 1″ pieces, green part only
1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil or canola oil
Stir together soy sauce, honey, water and wine. Set aside.
Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Dredge the beef in corn starch, shake off the excess. Add the beef to the hot pan and quickly saute until lightly browned.
Add in garlic and ginger, saute for a few seconds. Add the sauce you set aside earlier. The sauce should quickly come to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, stirring constantly. Continue to cook until the sauce thickens and glazes the beef.
Toss in the green onions at the last minute, mix, and serve!
Adapted from a recipe I found on cHow Divine http://www.chowdivine.com
Sorry, I didn’t get photos, but then mine didn’t look anywhere near as pretty as hers did! But it was yummy…
Orange Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess skin and fat (as much as you can without being too anal) and cut into bite sized pieces
1 Tbsp orange flavoring
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 Tsp ground ginger
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tsp corn starch
2 Tbsp vegetable oil plus 1 Tsp sesame oil for frying
Put the oils in a large skillet, heat on medium. Add in chicken, saute until no longer pink. Add in orange, garlic, ginger, honey and corn starch, mixing well to coat chicken, sauce will thicken quickly. When chicken is done through, remove from heat and serve! Really good with fresh steamed rice…
Vegetable Egg Rolls
1 head cabbage, shredded very fine
12 baby carrots, shredded very fine
2 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 Pkg egg roll wrappers
Oil for frying
Mix cabbage, carrots and sauces together. Spoon about 2 Tbsp of the mixture into an egg roll wrapper, fold up bottom and tuck in filling. Fold in two side corners, dampen final corner and roll closed.
Fry about 2 minutes per side in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.
Left over rolls (those supper yummy half whole wheat Virginia light rolls I made last weekend…)
Tuesday
SW Egg rolls with cheese
I had made about 3 dozen of those south west style egg rolls with the taco seasoned beef and black beans inside, we had 17 left after our little munch fest. Well, I put those in a big deep pan, covered them with shredded cheese and baked them at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. They crisped up a little on the exposed edges, but sort of tasted like mini burritos with the melted cheese, and made for a nice meal!
Wednesday
Pork Chops Everglades
6 boneless skinless porkchops
Everglades original seasoning (the green kind)
Heat a large skillet over medium, add in the chops. Sprinkle over Everglades seasoning instead of salt and pepper, make sure you sprinkle both sides (when you turn them). I have no idea how much we used, but it sort of looked like we had used it in place of salt and pepper, so liberally sprinkled, but not coated with seasoning. Saute until done through and browned on the outside.
Sauteed green beans with garlic
About 1/2 lb fresh green beans, ends removed, cut into 1″ pieces
1 Tbsp minced garlic
3 Tbsp butter
Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat, add in garlic, mix a little, add in green beans and saute about 10 minutes or until beans are bright green and crisp tender. Serve!
Fruit Salad
This was a fun fruit salad for me, because William helped me cut up everything!
1 medium Gala apple
1 medium Bartlett pear
1 medium Dragon fruit
About 30 large red grapes
Cut the apple and the pear into 8th wedges, remove seed cores, slice into thin bite sized pieces.
Cut dragon fruit in half. Spoon white seeded core out of pink skin, making sure to remove all the skin pieces, it’s not edible. Cut white fruit into small bite sized pieces.
Cut grapes into quarters.
Toss all this together, and serve!
Thursday
Jet’s Pizza
Yeah, we had take out… we needed a night off!
Friday
Bacon Cheeseburgers
1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb bacon (about 8 pieces)
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste
Sliced cheese of your choice
Burger buns
Mix ground beef, egg, salt and pepper together, mix VERY well, until beef is really smooth rather than crumbly. Form into 4 patties. Fry in a large pan over medium heat, flipping as needed to keep from burning. Cook until medium well, or however YOU like your burgers. We like ours ever so slightly pink at the very center and slightly crispy on the outside.
Cook the bacon crispy, break each piece in half, give each burger four half strips of bacon, cheese and toppings of your choice, serve on fresh burger buns, YUM!
Tots – yeah, frozen tots, cooked to package directions, whichever way you like to cook them. I prefer them fried, but that’s not very healthy, so I usually bake them… boring, but OK.
Saturday
Fried Chicken Nuggets
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into small tenders or large nuggets, your choice
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup Everglades seasoning (the orange version this time)
1 Tbsp fresh ground black pepper
Heat 3-4 Tbsp vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Mix the flour and seasonings together in a large shallow bowl. Add the chicken a few pieces at a time to this mix, let it sit for a minute or two on each side. Shake off any excess and add to hot pan. Cook about 4-5 minutes per side, or until done through. Remove to paper towel lined serving dish. Cook in batches until all chicken is done. Serve!
Chicken gravy – made from a mix, yes I cheated a little, but it wasn’t thickening the way I wanted, so I added some of the flour mixture from coating the chicken, made it really tasty!
steamed veggies – broccoli, peas, green beans
Microwave Brownies
4 Tbsp flour
4 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp water
Pinch salt
Mix everything together in a coffee mug or shallow bowl. You can add in a few chocolate chips or some nuts if you want, just don’t go overboard on the chocolate chips, it doesn’t cook as well. We’ve been adding about 2 Tbsp chocolate chips and about a dozen nuts. I like pecans, Mike likes almonds, they both work well!
Microwave 1 minute plus 10-15 seconds, allow to cook 5 minutes before serving.
Really good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!
Sunday
We went to Mom’s to celebrate Dad’s birthday, a couple weeks late, but at least we didn’t take all those colds and infections over there with us! Burgers, baked beans, potato salad, chips… LOVE picnic food!!
Oh, and I did my nails Saturday, between loads of laundry, tell me what you think!
Had fun with this one!
Anyway, that’s it for last week… Already working on this week, probably not a lot new, but some good stuff nonetheless…
Until then, eat well, love well, live well!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 264 – 270 (Week 39)
Hello again friends, and welcome back!!
Everyone was actually healthy, no one missed any work or school, feels like we should celebrate!! And it was a pay week, so of course we went a little overboard this weekend, but that’s nothing new.
The only stories for this week revolve around my fun day yesterday, the rest of the week was kind of quiet. But, it was a pay week, so we did the Friday night out, more on that a little further down. And then Saturday…
Started the day getting my nails done, getting my toes done (hurt a bit, but SO worth it!), got my hair cut. William joined me for this part of the trip, he likes to sit in the massage chair while I get my nails done. Then we made a quick trip into Winn Dixie to see what meats they had on special. Got two pot roasts, two packs of boneless pork chops and stir fry beef for $32.
Then it was off to Game Stop to get William the current free character for Pokemon, and he put a game on order.
Next, my first trip to the local Oriental Market. WOW! I could spend a whole day in there if I didn’t have William sitting the car waiting!! Maybe next time… But I did get some cool food for Saturday movie night. More on that below. And I think I found the elephant I want for my desk, but I didn’t want to spend the $8 that day… kind of glad I didn’t get him this week, since I ended up spending almost $400 on groceries at Walmart later!! Still haven’t figured out how I spent so much, I didn’t feel like I got that much, but I think prices are going up little by little. Have to pay more attention to the individual items next time, see if I can figure it out…
So, sort of a “me” day, sort of a “me and William” day, sort of a shopping day, all in all, a very GOOD day, even if it was expensive.
Monday
Spaghetti with Beef and Sausage Sauce
1 box Dream Fields angel hair pasta, cooked to package directions
1 pound ground beef
1 pound mild Italian sausage
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
Brown and drain ground beef and sausage together, crumbling as fine as you can. Put the meat back in the pan, add in the sauce, and heat while you cook the pasta. Serve topped with Parmesan cheese.
Tuesday
Pork Roast Everglades
1/2 pork loin roast, about 2-3 pounds
1 quart water (will NOT cover the roast, that’s OK!!)
1/8 cup original Everglades seasoning (the green one)
Put everything in the crock pot, set on LOW, cook 8-10 hours.
Remove from pot, slice and serve! We had some steamed veggies along with this, it was YUMMY!!!
Wednesday
Chicken Bacon Ranch Wraps
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 pound bacon
Dry Ranch dressing mix
Flour tortillas
Cook the bacon crispy, set aside.
Clean any excess skin or fat from the chicken, cut into very small pieces, cook over medium heat just until no longer pink. Sprinkle with about 2-3 Tbsp dry ranch dressing mix, mix well and cook about 2 minutes more. Remove from heat.
Spoon a couple large spoonfuls of chicken into a tortilla, add in 2 slices bacon, cheese if you want it, and a little bit of prepared ranch dressing, wrap and serve!
Bacon Grilled Cheese
William’s idea…
Basically, we saved a few slices of cooked bacon from the wraps, and put them inside a grilled cheese sandwich, and it was AWESOME!
Thursday
James brought us Wendy’s for dinner
Friday
Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza, Yogurtology, comic book store
Gotta say, the pizza was REALLY good, the yogurt was over priced and just not that good. The store was cool, and William enjoyed it, but it was just GOOD, not GREAT, and for $20, it should have been AMAZING!!!
Saturday
Steamed buns with chicken (purchased at the Oriental market – OK, not great)
Steamed dumplings with chicken (same as above)
Fried dumplings with chicken (same as above – would have been better deep fried rather than pan fried)
Quick cheesecake (I bought a graham cracker crust, and a container of Philly pre-made cheesecake filling, and put them together)
Sunday
Southwest Egg Rolls
Egg Roll wrappers
2 pounds Ground beef
2 cans Black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup Taco seasoning
1 1/2 cups Water
Brown and drain ground beef, add in water, taco seasoning and beans, mix well, cook until sauce thickens, remove from heat, allow to cool at least 1 hour.
Put an egg roll wrapper on a plate, spoon in about 2-3 Tbsp filing.
Fold up bottom, tighten up the filling inside, fold in the sides roll forward, dampen the last open tip of the wrapper and finish rolling. Repeat with remaining filling and wrappers.
When done, fry in oil over medium heat, about 1-2 minutes per side or until golden brown. Serve with your favorite salsa.
Vegetarian Egg Rolls
Egg Roll Wrappers
1 head cabbage, shredded extra fine
12 baby carrots, shredded extra fine
3 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp Teriyaki sauce
Mix the cabbage, carrots and sauces.
Lay an egg roll wrapper on a plate, spoon in about 2 Tbsp filling.
Fold up bottom and tighten up the filling a little.
Fold in the sides, and roll ONCE.
Dampen the last tip with water and finish rolling.
Continue filling wrappers until you run out of filling or wrappers.
When done, fry in oil heated over medium heat, about 1-2 minutes per side or until golden brown.
Remove from oil to paper towels, serve with your favorite sauce, I prefer Duck sauce since the Hoisin is a little spicy.
Southwest Wonton Bites
Wonton wrappers
Leftover filling from the SW egg rolls above
Put the wonton on a plate, put in about 1 tsp filling, dampen two edges of the wrapper.
Fold over into a triangle.
Dampen the two furthest corners and fold in towards each other.
Repeat until you run out of wrappers or filling!
Fry in oil over medium heat, almost exactly 1 minute per side, just a few seconds more maybe, or until golden brown.
Serve with salsa!
Mongolian Beef
About 1 pound stir fry beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp ground ginger
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp honey
1 Tsp rice wine
2 Tbsp water
3 green onions, green part only, cut into 1″ strips
2 Tbsp oil for frying
Put oil in frying pan, heat over medium heat. Add in beef, cook just until no longer pink. Mix the rest of the ingredients (except the onion) in a cup, pour over beef, add 1 Tbsp corn starch or flour to thicken, cook about 8-10 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened. Add in onions and serve!
Orange Chicken
4 – 5 boneless skinless chicken thighs
2 Tsp orange extract
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 Tsp ground ginger
1 Tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp flour or corn starch
Trim chicken thighs of any large pieces of skin or fat, cut into very small pieces. Cook over medium heat with just a touch of oil, cook until no longer pink. Add in remaining ingredients, stir well, cook just until sauce thickens. Serve!
Virginia light rolls (sort of!)
This is a recipe I got from my mom, but I have no idea where she got it, and I changed it!
1 Cup + 1 Tbsp milk, warmed about 1 min in microwave
3 Tbsp honey
2 large eggs
6 Tbsp butter cut into small pieces
2 1/4 cups white bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 Tsp salt
2 Tsp yeast
4 Tbsp melted butter for brushing
Put milk, honey, eggs and butter into the bread machine pan.
Add in the flours. Make a small well in the center, add salt and yeast.
Set the machine for DOUGH, hit start and go do something else for an hour!
Turn the dough out onto a floured towel, knead with a little whole wheat flour for just a couple minutes.
Line a 13″ x 9″ baking pan with parchment paper. Pull globs of dough off the pile, roll into balls and put into pan. You should get 15 balls, pan should end up 3 across and 5 rows.
Cover, let rise for 45 minutes.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Bake 25-28 minutes, brushing with melted butter at the 15 minute mark.
Serve with butter and honey!!
Bacon Egg and Cheese Casserole
12 eggs
1 Cup half and half (fat free)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
1 pound bacon
2 Tbsp flour
Cut the bacon into small pieces, cook until crispy, drain.
Mix the eggs, half and half, cheeses and flour, pour about 2/3 into a greased 13″ x 9″ dish. Sprinkle about 2/3 of the bacon into the eggs, push it down into the eggs.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve!
Bacon Egg Cheese and Spinach Casserole
Take the rest of the egg mixture and bacon, pour into a greased casserole dish (or in my case a souffle dish), add in about 1 cup frozen spinach thawed. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve!
And that’s it! I cooked all day, and my feet hurt, but it was ALL so good!!
So until next time, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 250
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Hope you’ve all had a Wonderful Weekend!!
It’s been a busy weekend around here, but it felt so good to have cool stuff to do instead of just chores! If you read yesterday’s entry, you know I cooked a LOT, well I continued cooking today. Plus I finished up the laundry, scooped the cat box, emptied the trash, and made some jewelry. YEAH!
I started off the day by making the frosting for the cinnamon rolls I made yesterday, very easy!
Cinnamon Roll Frosting
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1/2 Tsp vanilla
Mix well, spread on the cinnamon rolls and serve!
Then, I got some laundry going, and sat down to play with my beads!!
So here’s the bracelet I did today, lots of aluminum chain, lots of PURPLE, very cool!
And some blue elephant earrings…
And I started another pill/needle bottle necklace…
And now for the food!!
Perfect Baked Potatoes
Large russet potatoes, washed and dried
Sea salt
Olive oil (you can use vegetable oil if you want)
Pierce potatoes once on each side. Coat lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle with Kosher salt. Place on baking pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours, or until done through and soft when poked. Remove from pan and serve. Top with your choice of toppings, tonight we did just butter, salt and pepper, but they are also good with sour cream, shredded cheese, broccoli, chili, really whatever YOU want to put on them! I actually cooked a whole bag of potatoes so we’ll have some laying around ready to top. PLUS, they freeze well, so you don’t have to worry about them going bad!
Pot Roast
About a 4-5 pound roast, use your favorite cut, I prefer the tip roast
2 packets Flavor Boost, beef flavor
About 1/4 cup dried onion flakes
Water
Place roast in crock pot, add in beef Flavor Boost and onion flakes, salt and pepper if you want, and just enough water to almost cover the roast. Cook on LOW 8-10 hours or HIGH 4-5 hours. Remove to serving platter and allow to rest while you use some of the juices to make gravy.
I use a packaged gravy mix, 3 cups juice with 9 Tbsp gravy mix, bring to a boil and simmer 1 minute, turns out just about perfect every time!
Garlic Butter Crescents
Crescent roll dough
1/2 stick butter
About 4 Tbsp garlic powder
Unroll dough.
Melt the butter in a cup, add in the garlic powder and mix well.
Brush the garlic butter onto the unrolled dough.
Roll them up from the short side to the tip, and brush again with garlic butter.
Bake per package directions, serve!
And of course we had some veggies, broccoli and peas, kind of our usual.
Then I made a breakfast casserole for during the week. Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures. But it smells awesome!
Breakfast Casserole
12 eggs
1/2 cup half and half
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded cheese
1 chicken smoked sausage rope
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13″ x 9″ baking dish with butter flavor cooking spray. Set aside.
Beat the eggs, add in the cream. Pour into prepared dish. Sprinkle in the cheese.
Chop the sausage into small pieces, cook in a medium skillet until lightly caramelized. Add into eggs and cheese, make sure it sinks into the eggs.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 – 55 minutes, depending on your oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean and top is lightly browned.
I let this cool for about 30 minutes, then cut it into 8 servings and put them in individual containers so everyone can just grab, heat and eat in the morning!
So I think that’s it. I feel like I’m forgetting something, but I don’t know what.
Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 244 – 249 (week 36)
Hello again friends, and welcome back!! Hope you all had a great week…
Crazy week at work, had to finish up closing out the month of August, but everyone pulled together and pulled it off.
William had a great week at school! Finished up his antibiotics today, really loving having all these teachers in middle school, loving his guitar classes and learning a song by his favorite band, Green Day, just way too cool!!!
Mike had a pretty good week at work, he’s been taking antibiotics, too, so he’s feeling better. Still tired, but better. Busy at work, which is a good thing, it’s kinda rough when he’s not busy! He gets bored so easily… sounds like William!
I think James had a good week, got called in to work some extra hours, cut the grass for us (looks nice), off at his girlfriend’s like every other weekend. Between work and girlfriend, we almost never see him, but he’s been really helping with William, getting him to and from school almost every day so we don’t have to pay for after school care, very cool!
Anyway, on to the food, that is why we’re here, right? I’ve been keeping notes so I don’t forget what we had each night… yeah, Fibromyalgia is like that, if I don’t write it down, I really do forget! So here we go!
Monday
Went to a birthday party for William’s best friend, Noah, so we kind of “ate out”… Hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, chips and dip, potato salad, home made cake, YUM!!!
Tuesday
Chicken Pesto Pasta
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
1 box Dream Fields penne pasta
1 container Philadelphia pesto flavor cooking cream
1 cup frozen peas
Cook pasta to package directions, drain.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken, and cook until no longer pink. Drain any excess fluid. Add in peas and cook until heated through. Add cooking cream, heat until cream is well melted, stirring frequently. Add in pasta and serve!
Wednesday
Frozen taquitos (had a Thirty One party to go to, so dinner had to be quick and easy!)
Thursday
Coconut Curry Chicken
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 package Golden Curry spice mix
1 can coconut milk
2 packets Flavor Boost chicken flavor
Rice
Place chicken breasts, coconut milk, 1 packet Flavor boost, curry spices, and 2 cans water in crock pot. Cook on LOW for 8-10 hours.
About 30 – 45 minutes before ready to serve, add water, 1 packet flavor boost and rice to rice cooker per cooker’s instructions, and cook until cooker says it’s done.
Remove chicken from crock pot, shred.
If desired, cook your choice of veggie to go with this dish. We usually do broccoli for the grown ups and peas for William, nothing different this time.
Put about 1 cup rice in a bowl, add about 1/2 a shredded chicken breast to the bowl, add in about 1/2 cup of your veggie, top with a little bit of the juice from the crock pot, sort of like a sauce, and serve! If you wanted, you could even take some of the juices from the crock pot, add a little yogurt and flour and make an actual sauce out of it, might have to try that next time!
Friday
We ordered pizza from Jet’s, sort of a treat, and boy, was it good!
Saturday
I’ve spent the better part of the day creating yummy yummy stuff today! Lots of recipes to share!!!
Asian Style Pork Roast
2-3 pound pork loin roast
5 tropical fruit cups in juice
About 3-4 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tsp ground ginger
Place the roast in the bottom of the slow cooker. Add in everything else, stir a little, cook on LOW 6-7 hours. Remove roast from pot to serving tray. Pour juice and fruit into a blender and LIQUIFY, use as a sauce for the pork, it’s pretty good! Slice roast and serve with a side of sauce.
This turned out SUPER tender!
Cheesy Bacon Ranch Bread (from http://www.thecountrycook.net)
1 round loaf sourdough bread
2 cups shredded cheese (I used colby jack mixed cheese)
About 1 pound bacon, cut into small pieces and cooked until crisp
1/2 cup butter, melted
About 2-3 Tbsp dry ranch dressing mix
Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
Using a sharp bread knife, cut the bread going in both directions but don’t cut all the way through the bottom.
Place your bread on a large piece of aluminum foil (this will make it easier to wrap it up later).
Place shredded cheese in between the slices. Really pack it in there as best you can.
Now add in bacon (as little or as much as you like). We LOVE bacon, so I used a whole pound! Do your best to get in between the slices.
Now take 1 tbsp. dry ranch dressing mix and add it to the melted butter. You can add more dry mix if you like a stronger ranch taste. Give it all a good stir until combined. Pour or spoon the butter mixture over top of the bread.
Now wrap the whole thing up in aluminum foil and place on baking sheet.
Bake at 350F degrees for 15 minutes. Unwrap from the foil and bake for another 10 minutes (or until the cheese is melted).
And then dig in while warm!
Home Made Cinnamon Rolls
Dough Filling
3/4 cup warm milk 1/3 cup butter, softened
1 large egg 1/3 cup sugar
3 cups bread flour 2 Tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp sugar 1/2 Tsp nutmeg (optional)
1/2 Tsp salt 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
4 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 Tsp bread machine yeast
Add warm milk and egg to bread machine pan. Add in flour, sugar and salt. Tap pan to settle, and push a little of the dry ingredients into the corner of the pan. Place butter in corners of pan. Make a little well in the center, add in the yeast.
Set the bread machine to DOUGH, put the pan in the machine, and hit start.
On my machine, this is a 1 hour 20 minute cycle. Yours could be different!
When done, remove dough to a floured surface, kneed about 1 minute, cover, let rise about 15 minutes.
Roll out dough to about 15 inches by 1- inches.
Spread softened butter onto dough, top with sugar and cinnamon mixture (with nutmeg and nuts if you go that route!), roll as tightly as you can starting on a longer edge. Press edge to seal as best you can. Using a sharp knife or long piece of dental floss, cut into roughly 1 inch pieces, you should get about 12. Place each roll into a greased 13″ x 9″ pan, almost touching next roll. Cover and let rise 30 – 45 minutes.
Bake at 375 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 – 15 minutes.
Top with icing made with 1 cup powdered sugar, 1-2 Tbsp milk and 1/2 tsp vanilla and serve!
I haven’t iced these yet, but we aren’t having them until tomorrow morning.
Chocolate Fillers (from the back of a Log House chocolate chips bag)
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 Tsp salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter, brown sugar and salt. Blend in flour and oats until crumbly. Press about 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of a 13″ x 9″ pan. Heat condensed milk and chocolate chips in a sauce pan until smooth. Pour over base in dish, spreading to the edges. Top with remaining crumbs, press lightly.
Bake 30 – 35 minutes or until golden brown.
Cut into however many pieces you want, I went with about 12 bars.
VERY good!!
Anyway, that’s it for now. Not sure what I’m making tomorrow, but I had so much fun today, I just might have to cook again tomorrow!!
Oh, and while I was waiting on various machines to do their thing, I made some jewelry…
I finally finished this one, started it months ago but wasn’t sure where I was going with it until I found these cool plastic spike beads, then it all sort of came together! It’s a pin/pill bottle necklace.
Another one I started a couple weeks ago, did the wire wrapping/beading around the outside edge today.
And made this from start to finish today. Some cool aluminum chain, lots of little crystals and some cook brass coins, and viola, pretty earthy bracelet!
So, until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 237 – 243 (week 35)
Hello again friends, and welcome back! What a week…
William was sick all week so he didn’t go to school at all. On the one hand, he really wanted to go because he really likes the new school, but there was no way he would have made it through even one day. He slept a LOT, started on one antibiotic but got switched to a stronger one when he was getting worse instead of better.
We almost had a hurricane, Isaac sort of skirted the coast, schools were cancelled on Monday just in case. We certainly got a lot of rain, got some wind, but nothing major. Kind of glad it missed us, but I feel bad for the folks who got the worst of it.
The RNC was in town so traffic was a nightmare, but my mom also came to stay with us for a few days since she was volunteering there, and I love it when she’s here!
Work was nuts, they rearranged again, and I’m trying to figure out what the person I took over from was doing, trying to hunt down notes and e-mails, still feel like I’m behind, but not so far behind that I’ll never catch up.
And Mike had a colonoscopy, so he spent almost three days on a liquid diet, which is always fun (NOT!). Everything came out just fine, but it was a struggle. And we get to do it again in a year, oh joy. Of course, I’m due for one next year, too, so that ought to be interesting.
And James, well, he’s James. Was supposed to cut the grass two weeks ago, finally cut part of the yard last week, ran out of gas and is waiting for me to go get some. So much for being independent with that new car of his! Not like it’s going to cost him $40 or something, we only have a one gallon gas can! He worked a couple of days, still not getting as many hours as he would like, but he’s getting more than he was a month ago, so I guess he’s doing OK. Don’t see much of him, between my work, his work, and him spending time with his girlfriend, but I guess he’s got to grow up sometime.
Anyway, I’m still sticking to posting at least once a week, so I’ll have a bunch of stuff for you all at once, rather than just one or two things every day. I know it’s easier on me, not sure how you guys feel about it. Would love some feedback!!
Monday
Left over night!!
We had left over meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli, peas, Spasagna, corn muffins, spinach hummus and chips, and chocolate cake with home made chocolate butter cream frosting. Everyone got something they liked, and we cleaned out some of the containers from the fridge!
Tuesday
Chicken Bacon Alfredo Pasta
5 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 pound bacon
1 jar Alfredo sauce
1 box Dream Fields penne pasta
Cut the bacon into about 1″ pieces, fry until crisp, remove from pan to dish lined with paper towels.
Trim as much excess skin and fat as you can from the chicken, and cut it into bite sized pieces. Fry in the bacon grease until done through. Remove from pan.
Meanwhile, cook pasta per package directions, drain, do not rinse. Put back in pot. Add in chicken and alfredo sauce, heat over low about 5 minutes or just until sauce is warm. Sprinkle over bacon pieces and serve!
Wednesday
Spaghetti with Smoked Sausage
1 rope chicken smoked sausage
1 package Dream Fields angel hair pasta
1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
Cut sausage into rings and then into quarters. Cook in a skillet over medium heat until cooked through and some pieces are slightly caramelized. Add in sauce and heat over LOW while you cook the pasta to package directions. Serve about 1 cup cooked pasta with about 1/2 cup sauce with sausage, sprinkle over Parmesan cheese if you want and serve!
Thursday
Chicken Noodle Soup with Biscuits
William was still feeling rough, and Mike was prepping for his test, so I took the easy road… Canned chicken noodle soup and canned biscuits!!
Friday
Pay day, and our usual routine is to go out to eat then hit the comic shop. Well, since Mike had his test and William was still out of school sick, when we got home from the hospital, Mike took a nap, and William and I ran errands. Dropped of checks at a couple of places, including the rent, then we went to the comic shop early. And instead of our usual Sonny’s or Jimmy John’s, we actually we to a restaurant, The Oaks, where William had a bacon cheeseburger (imagine that!) and Mike and I both had Grouper Reubens, kind of their specialty, and OH so yummy! Onion straws on the side, didn’t stand a chance!
Saturday
More left overs, believe it or not, we still have some meatloaf left, some of the minis, plus a couple corn muffins, and I went grocery shopping so we had whatever we wanted as sides. Just sort of a free-for-all! But then I made dessert…
Fruit Pizza
1 Sugar cookie roll dough
1 box cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tsp vanilla
Fruit of your choice, sliced very thin (I used kiwi and peaches this time)
Spray a pizza pan with butter flavor cooking spray. Spread cookie dough into pan all the way to the edge. I pushed and pulled, but I think maybe cutting it into slices, putting them in the pan and THEN spreading them to fill the gaps might have been easier. I’ll have to try that next time. Bake at 350 degrees about 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool almost completely.
Mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a small bowl, spread over cooled cookie.
Top with fruit slices in an appealing pattern, whatever you like. Slice into eight pieces like a pizza and serve!
Sunday
Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole
1 bag frozen tater tots
1 pound ground beef
1 pound bacon
1 bag shredded cheddar cheese, or whatever kind of cheese you like, 2 cup size
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Spread frozen tots in a 13″ x 9″ casserole dish.
Cut bacon into about 1″ pieces, cook over medium heat in a skillet until crispy. Remove from pan, spread over tots.
Cook ground beef in the bacon grease, crumbling as much as possible, cook until no longer pink. Remove from pan and spread over tots.
Top the whole thing with the 2 cups of shredded cheese, season with salt and pepper if desired, and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and serve!
You could serve this with the usual burger toppings if you wanted, ketchup, mustard, relish, onions, pickles, ranch, mayo, whatever your family likes, you could even put them out in little dishes and everyone could just get what they wanted on their serving!
So that’s our week in food! Oh, and I also did my nails tonight, wanna see?
Yup, that’s my chubby thumb, but isn’t this color pretty?! And I love the new stickers I got this week!!
Anyway, that’s it. Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!! And have a safe holiday tomorrow!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 236
Hello again, and welcome back friends! Happy Sunday!!!
So, MOM’s here! YEAH! I like when my momma comes to visit, it’s cool! Have to say, though, I didn’t quite make it through all the cleaning I had planned, but she understands. She’s going to be working at the RNC this week, and we’re a whole lot cheaper than a hotel, plus we’re relatively close to where she needs to be.
William has a little bit of a sore throat, so I guess it’s a good thing that school has been cancelled tomorrow due to the impending tropical storm, Isaac. He’ll get to rest and relax a little, maybe feel better by the time he gets to go back, hopefully Tuesday. Can’t believe it, but he actually got disappointed that he won’t be going to school tomorrow! I’m so glad he likes his new school that much.
I’m off to the doctor tomorrow afternoon, unless we get hit really hard by Isaac, kind of hoping we do, don’t really want to go, can’t afford it! I don’t mind this doctor at all, she listens to me, and talks with me not at me, but I just can’t afford it! Should have planned that a little better… Still getting used to getting paid every OTHER week again.
Anyway, on to the food! Had a really good sit down family dinner tonight. The ultimate in comfort food, MEATLOAF! Here’s the recipe:
Meatloaf with Sausage
2 pounds ground chuck
1 package of 5 sausages, Great Value brand, mild Italian flavor (1 pound)
2 cups uncooked oats (I prefer traditional oats, some folks prefer quick oats)
1 cup tomato sauce (or spaghetti sauce)
2 eggs
1/2 cup dried onion flakes
salt and pepper to taste
One Perfect Meatloaf Pan!!
Squeeze or cut the sausage meat out of the casings.
Mix all your ingredients by hand in a large bowl, squish it all around really good, make sure there aren’t any obvious chunks of sausage anywhere, it should be relatively smooth when you’re done. Form this mixture into a rough loaf shape, and put it in the Perfect Meatloaf Pan. Bake at 350 degrees for at least 1 hour 15 minutes. It should be pulled away from the sides of the pan, and crispy on top.
I actually had more than I needed for this pan, so I made mini-meatloaves in a muffin pan, too! Got a whole dozen out of this batch, so we have leftovers! YEAH!
We had fresh made real mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli and peas along with the meatloaf, so it was my ultimate Sunday dinner. YUM!
So that’s it for now. Maybe more tomorrow, but don’t be surprised if you don’t see me again until next weekend! Not going to pressure myself anymore!
So until then, eat well, love well, live well!
