Fancy Grilled Cheese

Trying to diet is killing me.  I justified indulging in some buttery carbs by watching my portions and adding in a healthy sized meat and veggie serving... don't you judge me. ;)

2 slices 98 calorie bread
Butter --I still won't go margarine
Cheddar
Sliced Avacado, tomato, and lettuce
provalone

Arrange so you have one kind of cheese on each slice of lightly buttered bread and the meat and veggies in between.  Cook on medium heat in a skillet until both sides are golden brown.

I had something similar at Cubby's.  They have cranberries on theirs. SO GOOD.

Turkey Parmesan Muffins

I saw something similar a while back online, but I couldn't find it, so I improvised. It was really good!

Grease medium sized muffin tin
Preheat oven to 350

In a mixing bowl combine 1.5 lbs ground Turkey, 1 egg, 1 egg white, 3T Italian seasoning, 2 tsp crushed Garlic, 1/2 C bread crumbs, 1/2 C Parmesan cheese (grated) --don't over mix.

scoop into muffin tin 3/4 full in each section.  Top with a layer of spaghetti sauce and Mozzarella.

Bake for 20 min.

makes 8 medium sized muffins

Leftover Pot Roast Fajitas

Pot roast is on my top five comfort foods.  It makes me think of home.  We do a large roast, and then use leftovers for stew, sandwiches and soups.  Yet, things can get tired after a while.  I decided to stir things up yesterday (literally as you can see) and make our leftovers more exciting.

Not everyone serves a family of eight, so I calculated the ingredients for 2 fajitas per person.  Just multiply by the number of people served.

*1 T Olive Oil
*1 cup (per person) of leftover pot roast pulled apart or cut up
*taco/fajita seasonings to taste
*1/4 bell pepper (per person) cut up
*3 cherry tomatoes
*1 T minced onion
*Favorite shredded cheese to taste
*2 tortillas (I used wheat, but any kind will do.)

 I hate dry fajitas.  If you need more oil or a bit of water while heating the meat up, go for it.
Combine all ingredients and heat. I add the peppers and tomatoes last to avoid mushy veggies.

Place on tortillas in a line, add any extra cheese you'd like and roll.

MMMMMMM.....!

Easy Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Ham fried Rice

I love Pinterest!

One of my latest finds is this tasty meal found HERE.  It is easy, light and filling and my kids vaccuum it down knowing there is plenty more.  I'm adding this to the label "under $10" because we had every indgredient but the chicken on hand which cost me six dollars to feed 8.

The chicken coating:

3-4 boneless chicken breasts (I used the stir fry cut packages)

salt + pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

The sweet and sour sauce:

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbs ketchup

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp garlic salt

This is about half way done in the oven.  My fully finished golden brown version had a corrupted file.

Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs. Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes

Fried Rice : This is so dang easy and it tastes just like restaurant ham fried rice.   

3 cups cooked white rice (day old or leftover rice works best!)

3 tbs sesame oil

1 cup frozen peas and carrots (thawed)

1 small onion, chopped

2 tsp minced garlic

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/4 cup soy sauce

(I added ham)

On medium high heat, heat the oil in a large skillet or wok. Add the peas/carrots mix, onion and garlic. Stir fry until tender. Lower the heat to medium low and push the mixture off to one side, then pour your eggs on the other side of skillet and stir fry until scrambled. Now add the rice and soy sauce and blend all together well. Stir fry until thoroughly heated!

Alternative to fried dough

I LOVE fried dough/western scones. I don't love the added oil, grease, splatters, calories, and using an entire bottle of oil I have to dispose of later.

My daughter and I, while preparing a favorite snack of fresh tortillas, decided to experiment a bit.

We liked it so much it was our breakfast this morning and was SO STINKING GOOD!
All you do is heat the uncooked tortillas on a clean dry skillet per directions on the package, butter them, and add your favorite scone toppings.

Lipton's white pizza dip

So good! So easy!  Think Really yummy Artichoke dip meets cheesy bread.

1 envelope Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Savory Herb with Garlic Soup Mix
1 container (16 oz.) sour cream
1 cup (8 oz.) ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (about 4 oz.)
1/4 cup (1 oz.) chopped pepperoni (optional)
1 loaf Italian or French bread, sliced

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°. In shallow 1-quart casserole, combine Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Savory Herb with Garlic Soup Mix, sour cream, ricotta cheese, 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.   2. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese.   3. Bake uncovered 30 minutes or until heated through. Serve with bread.

CHEDDAR-POTATO-CARROT SOUP

CHEDDAR-POTATO-CARROT SOUP

6 TBSP butter or olive oil, or 50/50 of each

1 sm. onion, minced

Saute in a small skillet until translucent, more like sweating than sauteing.

Transfer to a big sauce or soup pot, & add:

6 C chicken broth & simmer for a bit.

Shred 8-10 carrots & 3 to 5 peeled potatoes. (I have used thawed hash browns, which work just as well.)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 bay leaf

2 drops Tabasco

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Simmer until veggies are tender.

Turn heat to low & add 2 C of 1/2 & 1/2 (can use fat free 1/2 & 1/2). 

Bring up to warm. TURN OFF HEAT!

Gently stir in one handful at the time, 2 - 3 C grated cheddar cheese, stirring in between til the cheese melts, otherwise your soup will "break".

Serve immediately!!!

Jazzed up Deviled Eggs

I personally love deviled eggs year round, I think they are great to bring to BBQ's, family get together's, church socials etc. With these you can almost always guaranty you'll head home from the event with an empty plate. 

I like to make a statement when I bring these delicious little morsels with me...for Easter or any function really...adding a splash of color to your deviled eggs makes a fun statement.

Start by filling a few cups with plain vinegar. Add regular food coloring to each cup and insert peeled hard boiled eggs one at a time. Leave in the vinegar until you have reached your desired color (this won't take long so don't worry...you're not pickling the eggs)

Next...slice eggs in two, remove yokes and create standard deviled eggs filling (use your favorite recipe). Fill each half with the creamy mixture and a dash of paprika for color. Enjoy!

I've also colored the eggs after they were sliced in half to color the whole visible surface area. It's entirely up to you :-)

Carrot Cake Pops and a Lollipop Garden

 With a 3 year old b-day, I decided to go the Cake-pop route.  It seemed (and was) SO much less messy!  That "frosting" isn't gooey, it is firm chocolate.  YUM!  The recipe looked so easy, I couldn't pass it up.

I decided on Carrot cake, since we were going with an Easter/Spring theme. 

1 box cake made per directions on the box and cooled.

Take 1/2 of the cake and 1/2 container of Cream Cheese Frosting and mix together making a dough.

Roll into balls (or carrot shapes) and stick in the fridge 2 hours or the freezer 30 min. (Make them small... like donut hole small, or to your horror, your beautiful creation will slowly make its way down the stick and die a sad death.  With the carrot shapes, you can get a way with more weight because it it distributed differently... still, there was much bellowing and perhaps a few off color words dierected at the demise of some of my best cake pops.)

Melt white chocolate pieces and add desired food coloring.

While chocolate is melting, prepare candy sticks or dowels.  Candy sticks are a lot more pricy. (I used dowels 3/4 covered with floral tape and on the one pictured, I used floral wire covered with floral  tape to make the stem of the carrot.)

Dip the tip of the stick into the chocolate and place the firm, cold dough onto the stick. Hopefully you will have more luck dipping your dough in the chocolate.  Not only did I have to thin my chocolate out with milk a bit, but I spread it with a spatula, as the chocolate kept pulling the dough off of the stick for me.

Place in styrofoam or a candy stick holder, like the one I got at Walmart and I would suggest keeping them cool until use.  As you can see, some turned out MUCH better than others.  But the kids loved them and their faces were CLEAN!

I had seen the idea for a lollipop garden on Pinterest using Tootsie pops.

It looked so cute and all it was, was the candy stuck in a patch of grass.  Cute and easy, right?

Well, not for me.  i couldn't find Tootsie pops anywhere.  So I used dum-dums.  Well, dum-dums are significantly shorter and got lost in the grass.  So I added a mini muffin liner and tied the bottom with emroidery floss, then placed them in the actual flower garden.  Even the boys att he party liked picking these flowers.  :)

Complete with egg hunt, gift bags, coloring printable crowns and

rounds of duck-duck goose, simon says, and a bubble machine, I only spent

$30 on the entire party.

Grilled Potatoes and Carrots

This is by no means an "original" recipe. I have seen variations of it at bar-b-ques and picnics, so I don't really know where the credit for it's tastiness should fall. It is however incredibly quick- incredibly tasty- and incredibly easy to make.

Potatoes
Baby Carrots
(any other veggies you may like)
Ranch Seasoning Packet (or 2!)

Wash and cut raw potatoes. I used approximately 8 medium-smallish Yukon golds, but any type/size will work. Just clean enough for your family. Boil potatoes for a few minutes to soften them. You don't want them mushy, just slightly cooked through so they will cook quicker on the grill. You can even do this ahead of time and have them in the fridge, ready to go whenever you are. (You don't have to pre-boil them, but they will definitely take longer to grill if you don't.)

Combine carrots and potatoes. Mix in 1 Ranch Dips packet (I used Hidden Valley). Sometimes I even throw in some salt and pepper.

Make a foil pouch and dump veggies on it. Roll up tight and take it to the grill.
Flip it a couple times to make sure it cooks evenly.

End result:

 yum

Traditional Irish Soda Bread Farls



Place a large flat skillet, lightly floured on the stove over medium low heat.

2 C Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Soda (Sifted)

fluff together in a large bowl and make a large hole in the center

1 Cup Buttermilk

fill the hole with the buttermilk and quickly mix into a dough.

Place dough on a floured surface and gently knead into a ball, then press into a disk about 1/2 in thick.

cut disk into 1/4 pieces (Farls)



Place your fourths/Farls on the floured, heated skillet and cook until golden brown (about 5 min) flipping once to brown the other side (another 5-ish minutes)

Think really dense KFC biscuit with butter and jam....but better.  Also, the dough can be fried like a scone or baked into a bread.

Loaded Cheesy Rice

2 Cups of Uncooked Rice

Make according to directions with Chicken broth instead of water and adding some minced onion

Melt in about 2 Cups of Cheddar Cheese.  (Enough to coat all of the rice)

Place in bowls topped with sour cream and bacon bits

This was not an all around hit in our house.  Exactly half and half, actually.  It tastes like the rice version of a loaded baked potato.  I dug it, personally, but the potato purists felt it would be better to stick with the good stuff.  LOL

If I ever make this rice again, I think I might add broccoli.



Cumin Tomato Rice

Basmati Rice

Butter

Tomato diced

Cumin seeds

Cumin powder

Turmeric (just a pinch for color)

S&P to taste

Follow the instructions on the package for the basmati rice. Add cumin seeds, and some cumin powder to the water and butter while the rice is cooking. After the rice is cooked through taste and add extra cumin powder S&P to taste. Dice up tomato (either one large or a handful of cherry tomato's) and add to rice.

-Enjoy

Baked apples

 

This is the dessert that would tell me cool weather had arrived, when I was a kid.  There are a few ways to do the apples: The whole apple, cored;  Peeled and cut up; or in a sauce, though that's my least favorite.  Either way, it is a great way to use up apples!

This recipe is easily adapted to amounts, so you can have it for two or for twelve.

-Any kind of apple in the desired quantity chopped up.

-Coat in brown sugar and cinnamon generously (if using whole apples, stuff with brown sugar)

-Top with butter

-Bake at 350 for 30 min or until apples are softened.

Serve with Vanilla Ice Cream

South Western Wedges

Cut up potatoes
Olive Oil
Season Salt
Cayenne Pepper

Brush potatoes with oil, place in Ziplock, shake in season salt enough to lightly coat the potatoes, do a few shakes of the cayenne, zip the ziplock and shake and bake!

Bake at 400 for about 20-30 minutes
For crispier taters, cut finer wedges or do Fry style!

Thanksgiving in a burger!

1 lb. Ground Turkey
1 sweet apple; grated
1/2 onion
1/2 C chopped Celery
1/2 pkg dry stuffing
1 egg
1/2 C dry bread crumbs
Poultry seasoning.

Combine ingredients and shape into a ball. Divide into 4ths and make into patties. Fry over med-high heat flipping periodically until heated through. Remember with all poutry to be very sure the meat is fully cooked.

Top with Cranberry sauce or this fantastic Cider Gravy by Rachel Ray. It is super easy and while it makes the burger a bit messy is, as RR would say: YUM-O!

Crockpot Homestyle Apple Brown Betty

6 Cups of your favorite cooking apples
1 cup breads crumbs
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 C melted butter
1/4 Walnuts finely chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt

Coat crockpot with cooking spray.  Place apples at the bottom
Combine remaining ingredients in a separate bowl and spead over apples

Cover and cook in crock pot on LOW 3-4 hours or on HIGH 2 hours until done.

Pumpkin Spice cookies

EASY EASY EASY!

1 15oz. can pumpkin
1 box spice cake mix

Dump dry cake mix into a bowl. Add canned pumpkin. Mix ingredients until cake mix is fully incorporated into the pumpkin. Drop by spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Cookies will be light and cake-like.
If you are feeling extra nice, throw in a cup of chocolate chips, too!



(The absolute best part of this recipe is the amazing smell that comes form your kitchen! Enjoy!)

I have also seen similar recipes that add an egg into the mixture, but I never bother. I have tried it with the egg, and I really don't think it adds all that much to the overall finished product...

Homemade Pizza From Scratch

Sauce:

1 6 oz can of Tomato paste
1 1/2 C water
1/3 C. EVOO
2 cloves of Garlic minced
salt and pepper
1/2 Tb chopped fresh oregano leaves
1/2 Tb chopped fresh Basil leaves
1/2 Tb chopped fresh rosemary leaves
(you can use dried, but you'll have to tweak it to taste)

Mix together all ingredients making sure to dissolve the tomato paste and let sit for a few hours to get a better flavor.  No need to cook it, just spread it on the crust.

Crust:

2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)

In a large bowl or mixer, dissolve yeast and sugar in the water and let sit for 10 min.

Stir in
1 tsp Salt
2 Tb EVOO
then 2 1/2 C Flour  (for higher elevations, use 3 C)

For mixers, use bread hook and add small amounts of flour intil the dough is no longer sticky.  For old school, Turn out dough onto a well floured surface knead in flour to same effect.

Place the bowl in a well oiled bowl, cover with a warm, damp cloth, and let rise to double (about 1 hour)  I set the over to warm and then turn it off and place the bowl in there.

Punch down dough, and make into a tight ball.  let it sit and loosen for about a minute.

Roll or toss Pizza to fit your pizza stone or pan.  Add sauce and desired toppings.  This one has 4 cheeses.  And we had a smaller Pizza sheet, as my stone broke *sniff*  So the result as a BeauJo's Pizza effect with fantastic crust that doubled for tasty bread sticks.

If there is excess dough, roll and twist to form the crust and use a knife to make small slices around the crust.

Bake in preheated oven at 450  Using a stone, bake immediately.  For a pan, lightly oil the pan and let the dough rise another 15-20 minutes before topping and baking it.

Cook time is about 15-20 min. until the cheese and crust are golden brown.

Mimi's Corn Chowder

4 Tb Butter
6 chopped onion

Melt and cook till onions are clear

Add 2 1/2 C water
3/4 C celery
2 tsp salt
1 pinch of pepper
2 C cubed, potatoes

Cook until potatoes are softened

Add all but 1 C of 1/2 & 1/2 1 Quart carton
defrost 1 pkg of frozen corn

Mix left over  1 C 1/2& 1/2 with 3 Tb flour.
Whisk in to soup and simmer 30 min.