Sunshine Salad

I found this cute recipe and had to try it with the girls.  They don't like cottage cheese (it's a texture thing) so I told them that they didn't have to eat it if they didn't want to.  To my surprise, they ate the whole thing!  Even the lettuce.  It made a great snack for them.  Hope you (and your kids too!) like it.

This recipe is for two servings

1 orange (or can of mandarine oranges)
1 8oz can pineapple rings (or tidbits arranged)
4 lettuce leaves
1 cup cottage cheese
2 maraschino cherries (or fresh cherries, pitted)


Peel and section the orange (or drain from can).

Open the can of pineapple and drain the liquid.

Place 2 washed lettuce leaves on each plate. Place 2 pineapple rings on top of the lettuce on each plate.

Place 1 scoop of cottage cheese on top of the pineapple rings (I use my Pampered Chef scooper that is great for cookies).

Place the orange segments around the cottage cheese to look like sunshine. Place a cherry on top of cottage cheese.

Memories

Cooking and food for me is something the evokes memories.  The smell of chocolate chip cookies baking reminds me of making them with my step-mom while growing up.  Banana bread makes me think of my dear friend (and co-blogger) Jen.  Pumpkin pie reminds me of my grandma and the lovely dinners that were had at her house over the years.  Making Rodeo Ranch Chicken Salad reminds me of my aunt who introduced me to that wonderful recipe on a visit home.  I remember going to Long Beach every summer and eating salt water taffy and ice cream from a wonderful restaurant (now closed).  One of my favorite memories of a trip to California was eating at a fancy (to an 8 year old) restaurant and getting to eat not only my chocolate mousse dessert, but my uncles too.

  Why was I thinking of this and decided to blog about it?  It made me think of the memories that I can start making with my little girls.  We make brownies together (in matching aprons lovingly made for us) and muffins.  The girls love the smell of food in the crockpot when we get home from church.  My older daughter loves her treat of going out with her grandpa weekly for lunch and an ice cream.  Sharing my cooking moments with the girls can help them have good memories too, and I can share my memories with them also.  I regret the times that I missed out not learning to cook with my grandmas.  They are from the generation that starts with a basic recipe and over the 60 years of cooking, they perfect it.  I never learned the special little changes made to make it "just right".  So I'm making notes now when I use a recipe that I will pass along someday.

My half-year resolution is to make some good memories this summer. 

Italian Breaded Pork Chops

Ingredients:
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
4 pork chops


Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a small bowl, beat together the eggs and milk. In a separate small bowl, mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and parsley.

Heat the olive oil in a large, oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, and cook until lightly browned. Remove garlic, reserving for other uses.

Dip each pork chop into the egg mixture, then into the bread crumb mixture, coating evenly. Place coated pork chops in the skillet, and brown about 5 minutes on each side.

Place the skillet and pork chops in the preheated oven, and cook 25 minutes, or to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.  If you do not have an oven-proof skillet, you may cook the chops on the stove at medium-low.

How to be a "sneaky chef"

In my house I have a few eaters that are kind of picky and I've wanted to get us eating more healthy and it's been hard.  My two year old won't eat a whole list of things: pasta, rice, potatoes, beans, cooked veggies (except corn and sometimes broccoli), fresh veggies, cottage cheese, and so on.  You may be wondering what she does like after seeing that list.  Well she likes peanut butter and honey sandwiches, anything breakfast related (unless I try to put chopped veggies in the eggs), fresh fruit and smooties.  My husband doesn't eat as many veggies as he should and doesn't like whole grain.  So I've been trying out recipes that incorporate some of the more healthy items and it hasn't been working.  Then I was searching Amazon.com for cookbooks (last time I got 3 cookbooks for a total of $3.25 plus shipping!) and saw a title of a cookbook that said "Sneaky Chef".  I clicked on it and found the answer to my problems.  This woman (Missy Chase Lapine) has about 4 different cookbooks out that help you add protien, whole grains, veggies, and fruits to meals that your family loves already....and they won't be able to tell that the items have been added.  She has one book specifically for "man food" (chicken wings, alfredo pasta, meatball subs, potato salad, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, fancy french toast, ice cream), two for kids meals (recipes that adults like too), and one regular all around recipe book.

  She spends about 100 pages giving information on the benefits of healthy living, how to gradually add healthy items, and how to combine foods so you can lessen heartburn, increase the benefits of vitamins and antioxidants from fruits and veggies, and tells us which foods interact to increase digestion and absorbtion of nutrients and protein.
  Then she has a section of recipes for what you add-in to regular recipes.  Some of those include veggie/fruit purees (purple puree includes blueberries, lemon juice, water and baby spinach for smoothies, brownies, and cake), white bean puree (white beans and water to add to tomato sauce, egg salad, mashed potatoes, meatloaf), flour blend (white flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ to make donuts, cookies, pancakes, muffins, brownies, cake), better breading (pulsed almonds, bread crumbs, wheat germ and salt to make fish sticks and parm chicken), and mashed bananas (for ice cream, muffins, and smoothies).

After that section she has the regular recipes with the add-ins.  I've tried about three or four recipes and my husband and girls didn't even know about the things I had added.  My favorite so far has been just to buy Stage 2 baby food carrots and add them to spaghetti sauce, Sloppy Joes and maccaroni and cheese.  We are getting extra veggies, but it's not noticable to the people that might object.  We've switched from white to whole grain bread and tortillas and the girls don't seem to notice at all.  Tomorrow I'm making smoothies for breakfast and we will see how the "purple puree" works out.  We get the V8 juice that is veggie and fruit mixed.  I still serve veggies as a side dish so they knowingly get vegetables, but I'm just adding extra.

Blonde Reminiscence

Okay, yes, yes, I know the know the name of this recipe should be the title of the newest harlequin novel, but I couldn't think of anything to adequately describe it!  And it almost reminds me of a Blondie from Applebee's. And...although I think its delicious, there is definitely room to play with this dessert--add something, change up the amounts--be creative!  I'm sure it would be great with zucchini bread.. or leftover cake edges???

4 slices almost stale banana bread
1/2 c. pecans or wanuts, chopped
4 T butter
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 bananas, cut in 1/2" rounds (optional)
2 c. Creamy-ness (ice cream, whipped cream, etc--I used some leftover banana cream cheese frosting that I had... it worked too)

Melt the butter in a thick skillet, add nuts and toast til light brown. Add brown sugar to butter nut mixture (you may need a bit more butter so that the br. sugar has something to melt into...) (if you are using bananas, add then to the skillet and warm til heated through. Toast the banana bread if it won't fall apart in your toaster (otherwise, warm in a pan or the mic**wave... isn't that a swear word on a food blog??)

Place banana bread on a small plate, pour the brown sugar/nut mixture over the bread and top with your ice cream, whipped cream, frosting. Enjoy!!

Everything Frittata

Last week, I wanted to make something 'different' for dinner and I realized that I had a bunch of veggies in the fridge.  I remembered making a yummy frittata from a Family Fun cookbook, which I hadn't written down and couldn't find the recipe online, so I just made this up. I loved it.... Quick and easy dinner!!  These are estimates on amounts, because I just threw things together and didn't measure, but if you add a large amount of veges/sausage, then add a couple more eggs!

6 eggs, beaten
s & p
1/2 small Onion, minced
2 cloves, garlic, minced
2 -4 T Olive oil
2 Cooked Sausages (optional-- I used a delicious Chicken & Apple sausage that I get at Costco, sliced in to 1/4" rounds)
1 c. Broccoli, washed and cut into 'trees'
1/2 c. peppers
1/2 c. asparagus, washed and cut into 1" pieces
1/2 apple, washed and cut into chunks
3/4 c. cheese, shredded  (I used mozzarella)

Beat eggs and add salt and pepper. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350. Cook onions in olive oil on medium heat until almost translucent. Add garlic, sausage and broccoli and asparagus. Continue cooking until the onions are translucent and the remaining veggies are about halfway cooked, then add the peppers and apples. Cook for a minute more. Remove from heat. Pour the egg mixture over the veggies/sausages. Sprinkle cheese over egg mixture. Immediately, place in oven and cook for 15-20 until the frittata has set and the top is golden!

*I would have added tomatoes right before I added the egg.... if I'd remembered!

** I would have added mushrooms with the broccoli.. if I'd had any!!

Blueberry muffins

While shopping last week, I found a box of Blueberry Streusel muffins by Duncan Hines.  They are 100% whole grain and have real blueberries in them (not the hard, dried, sugared kind).  We had that for breakfast with some fresh fruit and they were very good.  It's an easy way to have something tasty, but also somewhat healthy.  I've checked out a book that has recipes for making muffins, pancakes, cookies, and donuts with equal parts white flour/wheat flour/wheat germ.  I'm excited to try the recipes to see if we like them.

Strawberry Shortcake

Well, I tell you this blog is requiring a lot of sacrifice on my part. This morning, I remembered that I had made a strawberry shortcake last night that I should have photographed to put up on the blog, but forgot. So, in my willingness to devote all my energy to this blog I decided I would use the leftover ingredients and have another for breakfast...  Haha! So here it is!! It was just as delicious as it was last night... too bad I didn't forget to take pics again!!

I love this strawberry shortcake, because it is NOT sweet! It is tasty and I love that I can feed it to my family and not have to deal with the 'sugar high'!

2 c. all purpose flour
2 1/2 T granulated sugar
1 T baking powder (yes, that is Tablespoon)
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. butter
1 egg, beaten
2/3 c. milk
3 c. strawberries, sliced
1 c. whipping cream
1 t. vanilla
1 T. granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 450 F. Mix dry ingredients together. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (it will look dry).  Add milk to the egg and mix together. Add the egg-milk mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring by hand just until moistened.  Grease a 8 X 8 pan and spread the dough into the pan, making the edges a bit thicker than the center of the shortcake.  Bake for 15 - 18 minutes. Let cool for a couple of minutes, remove from pan, let cool another 5 minutes. Split into 2 layers. While shortcake is cooling, pour cream into a tall bowl or large mixing cup, add sugar and vanilla. Beat until medium peaks form.  Serve with alternating layer--shortcake, cream, strawberries, shortcake, cream, strawberries! Enjoy!

Kitchen gadget #2

My new favorite kitchen gadget is the kitchen shears.  For years I've seen them at the store and never knew why anyone would need them.  I had a pair in my drawer and decided to use them really quick to cut up some green onions.  Amazing!  So I was in a hurry and tried it on cooked chicken tenders.  Fast!  Now I use them for anything that I can.  It's so much faster than chopping.  I'm all about saving time when cooking and these have helped me a lot.

Smiley pudding

My girls love to eat pudding and I was thinking of a way to make it a little more fun and healthy.  This is what I came up with.

We also do this with our yogurt too.

Chicken Salad

5 chicken tenders, cooked and chopped
1 rib of celery
1 green onion
dash of garlic powder
dash of pepper
dash of celery salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup of mayo (depending on your preference)

Mix all ingredients and serve on bread, croissants, or stuffed in tomatoes.  Makes 4-6 sandwiches.

Yummy Yogurt Parfaits with fruit

This is a great and easy breakfast.  I made some cinnamon rasin toast to go with it.


½ c sliced strawberries

handful of blueberries

1 banana sliced

1 c vanilla low-fat yogurt


Alternate layers of fruit and yogurt in 2 bowls or glasses, beginning and ending with fruit. Top with granola or almonds.

Dutch Baby

This was a breakfast treat for me when I was growing up... I loved it!  I made this a couple of weeks ago and was sloppy about my preheating/pan heating, but it didn't come out puffy, so make sure you follow the preheating to a T!

1 1/4 c. all-purp flour
1/4 teas. salt
1/4 teas cardamom seeds, crushed (optional, but so wonderful!!)
1/4 c. sugar
2 c. milk
1/4 c water
2 lg eggs
2 T butter
Fresh berries (opt)

Preheat oven to 425. Whisk together flour, salt, cardamom, sugar, milk, water and eggs in a large bowl. Let stand, covered, 20 mins.

When oven is 425, heat a 12" cast iron skillet in the oven for 10 min. Remove from oven and immediately melt the butter in the skillet. Immediately pour in batter; bake until puffed (about 25 min). Cut into wedges. Serve with fresh berries. Yummmmmy....

Crumb the Cake

I am not a cake decorator. Not even close, but I just learned a trick I wish I'd known long ago. Crumb the cake.

I decided to make a shaped cake (without a mold) for a 5 year old friend's birthday.  I had an idea and went with it, but until I was 90% I was sure I was going to have to rush to the store and start over by making a FLAT rectangular brithday cake, but it turned out surprisingly well.

Its the shape of a 5, but the circular part of the 5 continues to swirl up and around into a hill.

So here's the trick: Bake, cool (overnight is best), shape/cut the cake, then make a batch of thin frosting. Use this frosting to glue the cut pieces to eat other and then frost the cake. At this point it will look horrible b/c all of the crumbs will get caught up in the frosting. Don't stop. It will be okay! Let the cake dry for an hour or so. Make another batch of frosting the consistency you like (I made butter cream) and spread it on. The first layer of frosting will keep the crumbs and you'll end up with a nice smooth (non-crumby) finish. Decorate.

Since I had about 1/2 a cake left over, I crumbled the remaining cake up and turned it in to the road. I also made a pile of dirt (chocolate cake crumbs) in the corner, so I didn't have to be so careful about being tidy while applying the road. If I dropped some, I just swept it over to the corner with a pastry brush and added a dump truck when I was finished!

Heavenly Chocolate Mousse

My favorite dessert of all time is chocolate mousse.  I have tried to find a good chocolate mousse at a restaurant for the past 6 years or so.  Nothing has been what I was looking for.  My pudding with cool whip recipe is a good substitute, but lately I've wanted the rich, thick, creamy chocolate mousse that I remember from restaurants when I was growing up.  So I have done some research and found a recipe that I think will be good.  I'm going to try it this weekend and I'll update the review after.

Ingredients


8 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup water, divided
2 tablespoons butter (no substitutes)
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups whipping cream, whipped

Directions

1.In a microwave or double boiler, heat chocolate, 1/4 cup water and butter until the chocolate and butter are melted. If you use a microwave, melt in intervals and stir after each minute.  Cool for 10 minutes. In a small heavy saucepan, whisk egg yolks, sugar and remaining water. Cook and stir over low heat until mixture reaches 160 degrees F, about 1-2 minutes. Remove from the heat; whisk in chocolate mixture. Set saucepan in ice and stir until cooled, about 5-10 minutes. Fold in whipped cream. Spoon into dessert dishes. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Craig's Cheesy Bread

Fabulous, easy bread. Goes great with soup, salad and pasta!

I've made this for almost 15 years! Thank you Craig!

6 pc Sliced bread (White, Wheat, Hoagies, Hamburger buns, etc) *
4 T butter *
2 T Parmesan Cheese * (grated)


Preheat the oven to 400 F to heat your oven. You will later switch to broil, but make sure that the oven is hot before you put the bread in the oven.  Lay pieces of bread out on baking sheet. Melt butter in a frying pan. When melted, turn off heat, add the cheese, mix together. Using a rubber spatula, spread the mixture on each piece of bread. Broil on high for 2-3 while watching. When the bread is brown and cheese has browned, remove from the oven. Try not to eat the whole loaf before you serve it for dinner. Beware, its difficult!

*these are estimates--I have never measured using this recipe, but have noticed when I have added too much cheese to the butter, it is difficult to spread and you'll end up having to make more mixture to cover all of the bread. I think that the 4T/2T should be a good ratio, but play with it.

* this is one of the only times I recommend using Parmesan in the can/jar rather than fresh grated. The consistency works better when mixing with the butter.  I had to use the fresh grated tonight (in the pic), but still recommend the can as it makes it more consistent and more delicious the whole way through!

* I don't recommend using heavy wheat, multigrain breads. They detract from the 'flavor' of the cheese!

Cheesy Potato Soup

Cheesy Potato Soup

8 med potatoes; diced
1 onion; chopped
5 c water
6 T butter
6 T flour
2 c milk
1 ½ c grated cheese
1 t salt
1/8 t pepper
2 green onions, sliced
Optional add ins: broccoli, ham, carrots, celery


Combine potatoes, onions, and water in big pot. Bring to boil and reduce heat. Simmer until potatoes are tender (abt. 15 minutes). Do not drain. In separate pan, melt butter, add flour. Stir and cook until mixture bubbles. Slowly add milk while stirring. Cook and stir until sauce thickens. Stir sauce slowly into potato mixture. Add cheese; cook until cheese is melted.  Serve and top with green onions if you desire.

Usually when I make this I add in broccoli.  Last night I decided to cut baby carrots into small pieces and celery finely chopped.  I added them with the potatoes.  I think that it would be really tasty with ham.  I would add it before the cheese (if it was fully cooked already).

Easy Instant Chocolate Mousse

1 package instant chocolate pudding mix

milk

1 tub cool whip topping (thawed)

1 Hershey's bar

Mix pudding and milk as instructed on package direction. Let set in refrigerator.  Add half the tub of cool whip adn mix well.  Let sit 5 minutes.  Spread remaining cool whip over the top of pudding mixture.  Finely grate part of the Hershey's bar over the top.  Serve.

unexpected surprise

I was going through some CD's my husband made me that have info from my old computer.  I put one in and it had all the recipes I thought I would like to try about 5 years ago!  I put them on my new computer and will be trying them out soon.  It was such an unexpected surprise.  I've gotten some really good sounding recipes that are healthy (they are for people with diabetes) that I want to try.  In fact, after looking through them, I saw that my White Chicken Chili recipe comes from them.  I'll have to try some out soon and post if they are good or not.

Apri-Oaty Bars

1 c dried apricots *or any dried fruit
3 T water
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. oats
1/2 t. salt
1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 T honey

Preheat to 400. Line 9X9 with parchment. Puree the apricots and water. Set aside. Stir the flour, oats, and salt in a mixing bowl.  Melt butter, sugar, and honey in a saucepan over low heat. When completely mixed, pour over dry ingredients and stir until combined.  Press 1/2 of the oaty mixture in the bottom of the pan. Press flat. Spoon the apricot mixture carefully on top of oaty mix and smooth--leaving 1" border around edges. Press remaining oaty mixture on top.  Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and  leave to cool for 5 minutes. Divide bars into squares and let cool completely in pan, before scooping them out.  Yummmy....

Kids cookbooks

I went to the library yesterday and decided to try looking for kids cookbooks again.  Searching for them on the computer site for the library hasn't been very promising, so I just went looking at the shelves.  The computer said that there are 5 total cookbooks for children in the whole library system.  When I went to the shelves, there were three whole shelves of them.  All kinds of cookbooks: cooking for parents and children, fun kids recipes, cooking by country (foods from Germany, foods from France, foods from Brazil, foods from China, and so on and so on), how to make food fun for kids, recipes made up by children.  It was a wonderful find!  I take a reusable shopping bag that I bought at Target (all the grocery stores have them too) to the library because the bags they provide always break on me.  This time I wasn't able to fit all my books in the bag because I got so many cookbooks!  I've looked through three of them so far and have found that many of the recipes are the same.
  My favorite one though is "Paula Deen's My First Cookbook".  It has many of the same recipes as the others (ants on a log, smoothies, pancakes, pasta with cheese sauce) but there are some good other ones also (Porcupine Balls, Gelatin Blocks, Campfire Stew, Applewiches, Monkey Bread, and Green Eggs and Ham).  Not only the recipes sound good, but I like the way the book is set up.  The first page of a recipe has a picture of everything that you need for the recipe (mixing bowl, utensils, what to cook in, ingredients), the recipes are easy to follow if you want to have the kids make it on their own (if old enough) or help you out.  To make the book fun for kids, all the pictures are realisitc looking cartoons.  It also had a small section for making playdough and bubbles.

Gnocchi update

I went to a grocery store the other day and was walking down the pasta aisle.  They had hard, dried, thin pasta that was named gnocchi.  I think that if you were to do a baked gnocchi with that, it would be tasty.  If you find the soft, plump rounded gnocchi, find a different recipe.  So the gnocchi recipe is this:
  Cook the gnocchi in boiling chicken broth.  Follow the directions on the package.  Drain the gnocchi.  Place in baking pan and sprinkle mozzerella and parmesean cheese on top.  Broil for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Serve with crusty bread and a nice salad.

Grandma's Pumpkin Pie

3 eggs
1 1/2 c pumpkin
2/3 c sugar
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg (or pumpkin pie spice)
1/2 t salt
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 c evaporated milk
1 pie crust


This recipe is for 1 9-inch pie.  Preheat oven to 425.  Beat the eggs together in a large mixing bowl (or electric mixer).  Add the pumpkin to the eggs. In small bowl combine the sugar and spices.  Add this mixture to the pumpkin.  Add the vanilla.  Slowly add the milk.  Line pie plate with crust (homemade or store bought) and add pie filling.  Cover pie crust with a pie guard or aluminum foil.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove pie guard from crust.  Turn heat down to 350 degrees and bake 45-50 minutes.

Company Potatoes

I've heard these potatoes called by a few names: Company Potatoes, Funeral Potatoes, Potato Casserole, Cheesy Potatoes.  Whatever you call them, they are good.

1 bag shredded hash browns (1 lb 4 oz or so bag)
1 10 3/4 oz can cream of chicken soup
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 c sour cream
1/4 c butter, melted
2 T onions, chopped
dash of pepper
Topping:
2 C crushed Ritz crackers
1/2 c margarine/butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 2 quart baking dish and place hash browns in bottom of dish.  Mix all remaining ingredients in a medium bowl.  Add mixture to the hash browns and stir until well mixed.  Combine the topping ingredients and put on top of casserole.  Bake 45 minutes.  Makes about 10 servings.

We had this meal served with ham and veggies.  I've never tried it, but I think that if you add ham to the casserole it would be a good complete meal.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Maybe I've been living in the South too long.  Before living here I would have said, "Sweet potatoes?  No thanks."  Then a few years ago a friend of mine made them and I thought they were really good.  So this year for Thanksgiving I decided to try.  I didn't do the casserole with the marshmallows though, I just mashed them.  It was simple and pretty good.

3 Sweet potatoes (or yams, I'm not sure how you can tell which is which)
3 T butter
2 T brown sugar

I washed the sweet potatoes (but not peeled) and put them in water to boil.  If they are the larger size you may have to cut them in half.  When they were soft I drained them and let them cool.  When they are cool to the touch take off the peel.  In the pan add butter and melt.  Add the potatoes and "smash" (intentionally leave some pieces not mashed) then add brown sugar.