Cardamom Sour Cream Waffles

Well it's been a while since I posted any new recipes. Like 11 days or something. We had a very busy but awesome Christmas week, and I just stuck to my regular recipes. I got a new cookbook for Christmas from my mom which I am excited to go through. I've already marked a LOT of the recipes to try, but first I have to finish up the books I'm already going through.

We had this recipe last night, from the latest Simple & Delicious. Thanks to a great friend and blog reader, Jill, I now have cardamom, so as soon as I saw this one I knew I'd be trying it. I wish it didn't have sour cream in the name though. If you tell someone you are making "sour cream waffles" I bet they won't be that excited. So when I write this one down in my "keeper book" I'm just going to write Cardamom Waffles. I don't even like sour cream. I'm not quite as afraid of it as I am of mayo, but it's close. However I will cook with it, I just won't use it as a condiment.

Cardamom Sour Cream Waffles
3/4 cup white flour
3/4 cup wheat flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour from the NLC, which I love using. When you eat it you can't even tell)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cardamom
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
3/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

Combine first seven ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs, milk, sour cream, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla in another bowl. Stir into dry ingredients just until combined. Bake in a preheated waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions until golden brown.

These smelled so good while they were baking. They tasted great too. The picture in the magazine shows them being served with kiwi and banana slices on top. That didn't sound good to me at all. I had mine with strawberries, powdered sugar, and whipped cream in a can. The others had theirs the regular way, with butter and syrup (because they don't like strawberries, not because I wouldn't share). These were really good and really easy. Definitely a keeper.

Chicken & Lime Soup

This is from the Everything Soup cookbook that I have just started going through. Tonight Steve & Sam had to go to a potluck for Cub Scouts so they didn't eat this. Melissa & I and the 4 remaining kids ate it. Melissa, in case you didn't know, is my Monday Night Guinea Pig. I try new recipes on her a lot. I joked with her tonight that she should change her occupation on facebook to "guinea pig for the Page kitchen." She said she was going to, so stay tuned for that. The soup is kind of Mexican-ish. It has limes and cilantro, which I love. Melissa doesn't like cilantro; she says it reminds her of a California Roach Coach (apparently this is a place in CA where unlicensed vendors sell tacos), but she loves me enough that she still tries whatever I make, and usually likes it. Or, if she doesn't like it, she doesn't tell me. I also am changing the order of how the recipe's directions are given. I found it to be confusing and hard to follow. You might even after the rewrite, if you don't think like me.

Chicken & Lime Soup
3 limes, 2 juiced and 1 cut into thin slices
1 jalapeno, minced (I left this out because of the small children. Oh yeah, also because I'm a wimp and don't like spicy things)
1 tbsp minced cilantro, plus 6 sprigs
1 tomato, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
4 oz mild yellow cheese (I intended to use shredded Mexican cheese. I realize as I type the recipe in that I didn't use any cheese at all)
2 corn tortillas, cut into strips (I used tortilla chips instead because I love them)
8 oz uncooked chicken breast
5 cups chicken broth
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper to taste

Place the chicken in a large saucepan. Cover with water, bring to a boil, and cook for 5 minutes (blanching the chicken). Remove to a plate and shred. Discard the water you cooked the chicken in.

In a soup pot, combine the broth, lime juice, oregano, basil, jalapeno, bay leaf, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the chicken, tomato, onion, cilantro, and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 more minutes. Remove the bay leaf (oops, need to remember to remove the bay leaf from Steve's leftovers for tomorrow).

Garnish with cheese, slices of tortilla, lime slices, and cilantro sprigs. 6 servings.

Okay even though I forgot the cheese this was so good! All the kids only ate the chicken and the tortilla chips. Melissa and I had ours with the lime slices on top. The flavor of the lime really came out, and having the tortilla chips on top made it taste fabulous. So, not a crowd-pleaser at our house, but I'm still keeping the recipe.

Sticky Buns

This is my friend Autumn's recipe. It is in the adoption fundraiser cookbook I've been going through. I have eaten these before at Autumn's house but never made them myself. So today was the day. It says to let them rise overnight, but I let them rise all day instead. I can't do breakfast stuff for breakfast, due to the fact I am NOT a morning person, at all. Even though you don't have to do anything but throw these in the oven...maybe I could do this one, then. But as my default setting, I let them rise all day and we had breakfast for supper, with eggs and sausage.

Sticky Buns
18-20 frozen dinner rolls
1 3 1/8 oz butterscotch pudding (not instant)
pecans
6 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon

Place pecans on bottom of greased bundt pan (I really wanted to use pecans but then nobody would like this but me. So, nuts omitted). Place frozen rolls on top. Sprinkle with dry pudding. Combine melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon and pour over pudding. Let rise overnight. Bake for 30 minutes at 350. Remove by placing plate over bundt pan and turning over. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

The kids were so excited about these! When they were rising on the counter, they didn't look like much. Sam said "what ARE you doing with those?" I just said "you'll see." When they came out of the oven they just looked like regular rolls. But when I turned them out onto the plate they looked fabulous! Nathan saw it and ran for his siblings "COME SEE WHAT MOM MADE!!" I've never made monkey bread but Steve thought that's what it was. The sauce wasn't drippy at all (I assume because of the pudding mix) so they were very sticky on your fingers, but the sauce didn't drip everywhere. A very yummy addition.

Peanut Butter Lovers Brownies

I knew Steve would love these. This is his favorite thing to eat. It's from Tiffany's adoption fundraiser cookbook, which you should buy. It's actually Tiffany's own recipe, too. Made them for home fellowship so that we wouldn't eat them all ha ha.

Peanut Butter Lovers Brownies
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 tbsp water
1 2/3 cup chopped peanut butter cups
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 13x9 pan. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter, brown sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl until creamy. Add eggs and beat well. Gradually beat in flour mixture alternately with water. Stir in 1 cup peanut butter cups. Spread into pan. Combine peanut butter and sugar in a small bowl and microwave for 30 seconds on high. Stir until smooth and drop by teaspoonfuls over brownie batter. Swirl with knife. Sprinkle remaining peanut butter cups on top. Bake 25 minutes or until knife comes back clean (mine took more like 32 minutes).

These came out so amazing. Best brownies I have ever had. I'm not a huge brownie fan. Mostly I like the batter more than the baked brownie. But these, I liked the batter AND the baked brownie. Seriously so good. Everyone who tried them liked them. The kids at home fellowship don't usually like my desserts, so this was a nice change for them ha ha.

Candied Pumpkin Spice Pecans

I really like pecans, even if I don't like any of the ways to say them. I made these for home fellowship last night. Some things I can only make to bring somewhere else, because if I made them for home I would eat them all. Especially something like this, because nobody but me even likes nuts. Also nuts are very expensive right now. I guess it was a bad year for nuts due to a drought in the south or something. So as I was making these, I was thinking, "these had better be good." From Oct/Nov 2011 Simple & Delicious.

Candied Pumpkin Spice Pecans
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups pecan halves

Melt butter in large heavy skillet. Add sugar; cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat; cook until dark reddish brown, about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally (this took a very long time, until I turned the heat back up almost to medium...took maybe 30 minutes to get this color and the consistency you would need for them to stick to nuts). Stir in pie spice and vanilla; add pecans. Cook and stir 3-5 minutes longer or until pecans are toasted. Spread on foil to cool.

Okay. These weren't that good. I think it took SO long for the sugar/butter combo to get to the right temperature/consistency, that by the time it did, it snuck up on me, and I was like "holy crap it's time to add the rest of the stuff" and they scorched just a little bit. Even still, about 3/4 of them got eaten. At this time I would like to add a transcript of a conversation had between a friend's daughter (signified as FD, for friend's daughter, to protect her identity), aged almost 9, and myself, regarding the nuts.

FD: those brownies were good. Did you make them?
Me: Yes.
FD: You should make them again.
Me: The recipe will go on my website and your mom can make them, too.
FD: My mom reads your website all the time.
Me: I know. She is my best reader.
FD, pointing to the pecans: Did you make those too?
Me: Yes. Did you like them?
FD: Not really.
Me: yeah, they were hard to make, and I don't think they turned out exactly right.
FD: Well, where did you get the recipe? On the computer or something?
Me: my mom gets me this cooking magazine, and I got it from there.
FD: oh. Well, sometimes they don't have very good recipes in magazines. They don't really tell you what it's going to be like.

I thought it was sweet of her to try to make me feel better. Like, it's not YOUR fault they didn't taste good. It's the magazine's. So, I think if I made this again I would have a better idea of time frame and I wouldn't scorch them this time. But nuts are expensive. Also, the texture of the coating was like hard sticky caramel, and I wanted them to be more grainy and stick to the pecans like those cocoa almonds you can buy. So not exactly what I was hoping for, and they didn't turn out right anyway.

Gone All Day Stew

I love finishing a cookbook and starting a new one. This is the first recipe out of a new cookbook. When I say "new" I do not mean that it is just recently acquired. I mean I just started making recipes out of it. I don't even remember where this cookbook came from, but it was next in line on my cookbook shelf. This is the perfect time of year to start it, too, because it's The Everything Soup Cookbook. I like making soup because it's easy, the kids usually like it, and I can usually freeze a bunch of it for another meal later. This one is called "Gone All Day," but who would leave their house all day with the oven on? You could easily adapt this one for a crock pot, I don't think you'd have to change anything except: put it in the crock pot. My mom used to leave lunch cooking in the oven all morning while we were at church, and nothing bad ever happened, so it's probably fine to do, but I think you should stay home if you try making this by the original directions. Don't want to be responsible for any catastrophes.

Gone All Day Stew
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed tomato soup
1 cup water
1/4 cup flour
2 lbs beef chuck, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces (I bought the "carrot chips" that are already cut into the perfect size)
1/2 cup diced celery
6 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and quartered (that seemed like a crazy amount of onions to me, and nobody will eat them if they are cut in chunks that big...so I just diced one onion)
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 cubes
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 275. In a bowl, mix together the soup, water, and flour until smooth. In a roasting pan with a cover (I used my Pampered Chef bowl/cover thing that I don't even think they sell anymore but is perfect for this, and chex mix, and beans and rice), combine this mixture with all remaining ingredients; cover and bake for 4-5 hours. Remove from oven and discard bay leaf.

Of course this made the kitchen smell great all afternoon. Everybody liked it. I have half of it in the freezer already. And the hardest part was cutting the beef into chunks. You could buy stew beef, and you do cook it long enough that it would soften it. So definitely one to keep!

Cheddar & Bacon Burgers

We had these last night on the George Foreman grill, which I love. Have I mentioned it has removable plates you can throw in the dishwasher? Well it does. This is one of those recipes where you think to yourself, why didn't I think of that?? So easy and so good. From Simple & Delicious.

Cheddar & Bacon Burgers
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used cheddar/jack because I had some left from another recipe)
1/2 cup crumbled cooked bacon (near the salad dressings you can buy bacon crumbles so you don't even have to cook your own bacon)
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 lbs ground beef
8 hamburger buns
Lettuce & tomato slices

Combine first four ingredients in large bowl. Shape into 8 patties. Put them on your Foreman grill until thermometer reads 160. Also you could make these under the broiler, but you have to flip them after 5 minutes or so. Serve on buns w/ lettuce and tomato.

We had ours with barbecue sauce on top. See how easy that is? Why have I never thought to put the bacon and the cheese right in there with the meat? And they tasted fabulous. Only Nathan didn't like his. Definitely saving this one. So so so so good. I only used 4 burgers last night, so I froze the other four to have for another meal soon! I can't wait to eat them hee hee.

Caribbean Chips with Apricot Salsa

We had these to go with the Jamaican soup I just posted. I didn't make the salsa to go with these, because I initially hadn't planned on making these chips, but I just happened to buy tortillas for another recipe, so I thought I would just try them. So I didn't have the apricot preserves to make the salsa. We just dipped these in the soup, but that was a mistake.

Caribbean Chips with Apricot Salsa
2 tsp Caribbean jerk seasoning (I used Pampered Chef Jamaican Jerk seasoning)
1/4 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp ground allspice
4 flour tortillas
cooking spray
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup apricot preserves

Combine first six ingredients in a small bowl. Coat both sides of each tortilla with cooking spray; sprinkle with seasoning mixture. Stack all 4 tortillas on top of each other and cut the stack into 8 wedges using a very sharp knife. Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 5-7 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, combine salsa and preserves in a small bowl. Serve with chips.

Okay so these probably would be okay as an appetizer, but I wouldn't serve them with the soup. They were extremely seasoned. I liked them better than I liked the soup, which is why you shouldn't make them together, because it will make you think the soup isn't good, when probably the soup should just be served with bread and butter and it would taste great. But only Steve and I liked the chips. Not even Sam liked them, and they ended up having Pringles with their soup. I had Pringles coupons this week and last week, which made them very cheap, but I hate that the cans are so tall they won't fit into my cupboard. So I have this Pringles shrine in between the microwave and the bread maker. Looks silly. Anyway I might keep this one to try again, and serve it just as an appetizer and not as a side to the soup. I'm going to go to the Simple & Delicious website and tell them that, too. Oh also, if I make them again I'm going to brush the tortillas with oil instead of using cooking spray, because they will be yummier that way.

Jamaican Ham & Bean Soup

We had this for lunch after church today, with a tortilla chip recipe that I will post separately. I thought it would be really good, and it uses jerk seasoning, which I always have a lot of because I love Pampered Chef's Jamaican Jerk seasoning. I make these jerk chicken nachos with it that Steve and I just love, so I thought we would love this soup too. It's from the latest Simple & Delicious, Oct/Nov 2011. One thing I like about jerk seasoning, besides the taste, is that you get to say "jerk" a lot when you're cooking. When I was little, I thought "jerk" was the absolute worst thing you could call someone. So now whenever I make anything with jerk seasoning, I just laugh inside. I wonder who it's named after. Stuff like that. Also, do you guys remember that song "How Bizarre?" One of the lines goes "oooh baby, you're makin' me crazy." And this soup makes me think "Jamaican me crazy." If you want you can hum that song while you read this post.

Jamaican Ham & Bean Soup
1 tbsp canola oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cups cubed fully cooked ham
2 cans (16 oz each) refried beans
1 can (14 1/2 oz) chicken broth
1 can (11 oz) Mexicorn, drained
1 can (7 oz) white or shoepeg corn, drained (I left out both of thse and used 2 cups of frozen corn)
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies
1/2 cup salsa
1 tsp Caribbean jerk seasoning
1 can (2 1/4 oz) sliced ripe olives, drained (I hate olives, so I left these out)
1/3 cup lime juice
Sour cream and lime slices, optional

Heat oil in Dutch oven; saute onion for 3-4 minutes or until tender. Stir in ham, refried beans, broth, corn, chilies, salsa, and jerk seasoning; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in olives and lime juice; heat through. Garnish each bowl with sour cream and lime slices if desired (we didn't).

Okay so this was really easy. The most time consuming part was cutting up the ham. Unfortunately, it wasn't a hit. I thought Steve would really like this. Everybody ate it, at least ate the ham and corn out of it, but nobody was like "Yum" or anything like that. So I am surprised. I thought it would taste better. We had it with the tortilla chips, which are featured on the same page in the magazine, and are suggested as a side to this soup, but I think the flavors didn't go together, which didn't help the soup at all. So not a keeper. Maybe you'll like it though.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Bars

I made these today to bring to the Schmeling Thanksigivng Potluck. A crazy amount of fun was had. These bars were a big hit. This was my first foray into cheesecake that wasn't instant from a jello package. Don't me wrong, I LOVE Jello cheesecake. In fact, I just requested one at my birthday supper 2 weeks ago, and it was fabulous. I could've eaten the whole thing myself. But I thought this one looked pretty in the picture, and looked like it would be yummy to eat. It's from the Holiday 2011 Kraft Food & Family.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Bars
24 oreo cookies, finely crushed (I think it could've used more...the bottom layer was quite thin)
1/4 cup butter, melted
6 squares semi-sweet chocolate, divided
3 pkg (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 tbsp red food coloring

Heat oven to 350. Mix cookie crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 13x9 pan sprayed with cooking spray. Melt 4 chocolate squares in a medium bowl and set aside.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add eggs; beat just until blended. Remove 2 cups batter to bowl with melted chocolate; add food coloring and stir until well blended. Carefully spread over crust; cover with remaining plain batter.

Bake 26 to 28 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Melt remaining 2 chocolate squares and drizzle over dessert (I put the melted chocolate in a ziploc baggie and snipped a tiny corner from the bottom and drizzled it that way). Refrigerate 4 hours.

So like I said, pretty good. Some people thought they were raspberry, and mentally I was kind of expecting a berry taste when I ate it, because of the color that they were. But it was chocolately. Red velvet is weird. But good. Another one to keep!

Cranberry Shortbread Bars

I love shortbread. It's so simple and so yummy. This one is the last recipe I have marked to try from last year's Christmas cookbook from my mom (phew, finished this one almost in time to get the next one, hee hee). I always like to bring new desserts to home fellowship. The kids usually don't like what I bring, but I say that's a plus because there is more for the adults. And this is the perfect holiday dessert recipe.

Cranberry Shortbread Bars
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 pkg (12 oz) fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup unsweetened apple juice
1 cup chopped walnuts (left out)
2 squares white baking chocolate, melted (I used white baking chips, they didn't have squares of white chocolate at the Walmart)

In a large bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Combine the flour, coconut and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Set aside 1 cup for topping. Spread remaining mixture into greased 13x9 baking dish. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the sugars and cornstarch. Stir in cranberries and apple juice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook and stir for 5 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in walnuts.

Spread over crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Cool on a wire rack. Drizzle with white chocolate. Cut into bars. 2 dozen.

Yum yum yum. Yum. So good. Easy. Not too time consuming. Definitely keeping this one!

Baked Beans with Sausage & Apples

This is from Tiffany's adoption fundraiser cookbook. We love baked beans, and also we love smoked sausage. Baked beans, when you make them slow all day, make your kitchen smell great. Yankee Candle should totally do a Baked Beans one. The before, not the after, hee hee. Anyway a lot of times in cookbooks like these with multiple contributors, it can be hard to follow the recipe, because the person who submits it will not write down a step they just assume everyone will know, or that they know to do so well they don't even think to write it down. I am sure I am guilty of the same thing when I have submitted recipes in the past. So a couple of times in this one, I was like "what??" But a popular and oft-featured New Recipe Night consultant, my mom, told me what to do. So I will fill in her suggestions where appropriate.

Baked Beans with Sausage & Apples
1/4 lb dried kidney beans
1/4 lb dried pea beans
1/2 lb smoked sausage, cut into 1" slices and browned (I used a whole package because we really like it)
2 cups peeled, sliced apples
1 medium onion, sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups tomato juice
1 tsp salt
1 garlic clove (which I minced)
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp pepper

Soak beans overnight (in a large amount of water in a Dutch oven). In the morning, simmer beans until tender (this will take about 1 1/2 hours...way longer than I expected). In a crock pot, combine all other ingredients except beans and sausage. Bring to a boil (in the crockpot?? I didn't do that) then mix with beans (do you drain them first? Yes, but mom says reserve the bean cooking water in case you need to add more liquid as they're cooking); add sausage. Cook 2 hours on high or 6 hours on low, adding more liquid if needed (the bean water). You can also bake these at 325 for 6 hours, adding liquid as needed.

These could be meatless if you left out the meat. That is the Captain Obvious sentence of the day. I made mine in the crock pot and didn't end up needing to add any extra liquid, but I'm sure if you made them in the oven you would have to. These came out great. Nathan didn't like it at all, but he still ate them. Everyone else liked them. The sauce turned out so so yummy and just a hint of sweetness. I gave some to my friend and she said it was delicious. So this is definitely something I'll make again, but definitely making a double batch next time, because they are all gone already, only one little serving left for leftovers.

Slow-Cooker Cheesy Chicken & Potatoes

This is what we had last night. It's from the "Holiday 2011" Kraft Food & Family that my sister just gave me. It looked easy, and I had some red potatoes left over from last week so I made it. We have homeschool co-op on Tuesdays, which is always a crazy day, so Monday night I put this all in the crockpot, and put the liner in the fridge. Tuesday morning I took it out of the fridge, left it on the counter for about an hour to come to room temp, then put it on low right before I left. Coming home yesterday the kitchen smelled great, and then I could do nothing until it was time for supper. I watched the Amazing Race episode I had missed on Sunday night, and I think it was an afternoon well spent.

Slow-Cooker Cheesy Chicken & Potatoes
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 lb red potatoes (about 3), very thinly sliced
1 tsp paprika
8 small bone-in chicken thighs (about 2 lb), skin removed (I bought boneless skinless thighs)
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup
1/4 lb (4 oz) Velveeta, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (omitted...the green pepper is enough green for one dish for this family haha)

Place peppers in bottom of crock pot sprayed with cooking spray; top with potatoes. Sprinkle paprika over chicken. Place 4 thighs on top of veggies; cover with soup then remaining thighs. Cover and cook on low 6 to 8 hours or high 3 to 4 hours.

Use slotted spoon to transfer chicken and veggies to serving plate; keep warm. Set crock pot to high heat. Add velveeta and worcestershire sauce to reserved liquid in crock pot; stir. Cover and cook 5 minutes. Stir until velveeta is completely melted and sauce is well blended. Spoon over chicken and vegetables and sprinkle with parsley.

So even though this was very easy, it wasn't that great. Velveeta is very expensive, even though it's not real cheese. It was $3.50ish for 1 lb or $4.50ish for 2 lbs, so I got 2 lbs because I can make taco dip with the rest of it. But the sauce just wasn't very cheesy. The 2 little ones didn't like the potatoes. The chicken was very tender and good, but the sauce didn't do anything for it. So not saving this one. But I am going to do that thing with the crock pot more often.

Stovetop Italian Macaroni

This is from the Simple & Delicious I just got in the mail last week. It sounded easy, and I only had to buy one ingredient, the tomatoes. Also I like almost everything with onion soup mix. One time I had a coupon for save $1 on Lipton dried soup or whatever. I bought onion and "savory herb and garlic." Yesterday I found the savory herb one in my cupboard, with a use-by date of Oct 24, 2008. HA! Guess I only like the onion one! I threw that other one away. I will use things a bit past their best-by date, but that's too much. Okay so here's this one.

Stovetop Italian Macaroni
1 lb ground beef
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups water
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (if desired)(I left this out. Too risky)
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook beef over medium heat in a Dutch oven until no longer pink; drain. Add the tomatoes, water, soup mix, Italian seasoning, and pepper flakes if using. Bring to a boil. Stir in macaroni. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 8-9 minutes or until macaroni is tender. Remove from heat. Stir in Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Cover and let stand for 2 minutes or until cheese is melted.

The grownups + Sam liked this. From the littles, a refrain of "I don't like tomatoes." "I don't like cheese." When reminded this is the same cheese that appears on cheese pizza and in stuffed shells, the littlest replied, "No it's not!" Anyway it was a fine meal, and lots of leftovers for the week to come, but probably a one hit wonder.

Lentil Tacos

This is from Tiffany's cookbook. Now normally I wouldn't say "yum, lentils." But they are so cheap. And I am trying to make one meatless meal per week. Not because meat is bad, but it is expensive. And we have had lentils before. The kids have eaten them without complaint. So I decided to try them.

Lentil Tacos
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup dried lentils, rinsed
1/4 cup taco seasoning (or 1 envelope)
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup salsa

In large skillet saute onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add lentils and taco seasoning, cook and stir 1 minute. Add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 25-30 minutes or until lentils are tender. Uncover and cook 6-8 minutes or until mixture is thickened. Mash slightly and stir in salsa. Fill taco shells and top as desired (we used cheese and lettuce).

These were pretty good. They definitely will not replace regular meat-filled tacos on our menu. Nathan had chicken nuggets, ha ha. Sam & Emma both ate theirs and said that they liked them. I asked them, on a scale of 1-10, if meat tacos are a 10, what are lentil tacos? And they said 7. So that's pretty good. We still have half the filling left so we will be having these at least once more in the near future.

Easy Cinnamon Roll Muffins

I found this on facebook. One day a bunch of my fb friends posted this recipe and how good it was. I decided to try it because my kiddos LOVE cinnamon rolls and those Pillsbury ones are so bad for you. Not that these are overly healthy, but you can doctor it a bit to make it more healthy. This is from a blog I have never heard of before, called Joy the Baker, and at the bottom of the recipe it says it is copyrighted. I am certainly not plagiarizing and always cite my recipe sources.

Easy Cinnamon Roll Muffins
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp active dry or rapid rise yeast
2/3 cup warm milk (100-110F; low fat is fine)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg

Filling/Topping

2 tbsp butter, room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground cardamom (this is crazy expensive and I didn't buy it...I have never bought it...the little jar at Walmart was $11!!)

Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp milk or cream

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Dissolve the yeast in a measuring cup filled with the warmed milk, then stir milk mixture, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and egg into the flour mixture. Mix well, until very smooth. Pour into prepared pan and let rest for 15 minutes (I let it rest in the mixing bowl).
While the dough rests, mix together butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom(if you are rich) in a small bowl using a fork until all the butter has been incorporated into the sugar and mixture is crumbly. Divide the batter between 12 greased muffin cups. Sprinkle evenly on top of rested dough and press the mixture down into the dough with your fingertips (or swirl in with a spatula.)(you should swirl it...I didn't, I just pressed it in, but not deep enough, I guess, and a lot of the topping ended up not staying on the muffin, and only top layer was cinnamon roll-y, and the rest was just a regular muffin)
Place pan into a cold oven, then set the oven temperature to 350F.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until bread is lightly browned at the edges and the center of the bread springs back when lightly pressed. Some of the sugar mixture on top may still be bubbling.
Cool for at least 30 minutes before whisking the powdered sugar and milk together to form an icing and drizzling it onto the bread.
Serve warm. Leftovers can be reheated in the microwave.

So these were really really really good. I am definitely going to make these again. They smelled great, tasted great, and the kids all loved them. You should totally try them.

Lake Erie Clipper Soup

I have no idea what the name of this soup means. I know what Lake Erie is, and roughly where it is. And I bet that "clipper" refers to a clipper ship, a ship most commonly used around the turn of the century to quickly (by the standards of those days) get goods from the east coast to the west coast by sailing all the way around South America. Neither one of these concepts appear in this soup, and no insight is offered by the recipe's contributor. It's from Tiffany's fundraising cookbook, Homeward Bound. It sounded like it would be really yummy, and it is soup season, after all. We had this with bread and butter. It's a bit light on veggies, but none of us mind that. At all.

Lake Erie Clipper Soup
5 cups beef broth, divided
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb stew beef, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 medium onions, chopped
salt and pepper
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup pearl barley (I used "quick" barley)
1/2 cup small shell macaroni (I used mini alphabet pasta)
2 cups stewed tomatoes (I used diced tomatoes, 14.5 oz can)

Heat oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Dredge meat in flour, salt, and pepper (it doesn't tell you how much, but I used 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper) and brown in pot. Add garlic and onions, brown lightly. Add 4 cups of broth. Bring to a boil for 3-5 minutes. Add bay leaf. Simmer gently x 1 hour. Add remaining broth. Bring to a boil. Add barley, macaroni, and tomatoes. Simmer 30 minutes. Then remove the bay leaf.

So, it never tells you what to do with the thyme. I added it when I added the bay leaf.

So this was pretty good. The kids all liked it, because they like alphabet soup because of Martha Speaks (a cartoon on PBS where the dog eats alphabet soup and then she can talk and read and stuff). We ate about half of it, and remaining half is going into the freezer to eat on a zombie night (those are the nights when I feel like a zombie. I don't act like one. I don't want to eat anyone's brains or anything. Just in a haze of tiredness).

Buttermilk Cake with Caramel Icing

We brought this to home fellowship last night too. I found it on my second pass through the Taste of Home cookbook. It looked like it would be good for a crowd, and we always have lots of kids at HF (19 last night, not counting the ones that are still incubating!!). Also it seemed good for fall, even though it's in the "spring" section of the cookbook.

Buttermilk Cake with Caramel Icing
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (you can buy buttermilk, or make your own by putting 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar into a 1 cup measure and then filling with milk to the 1 cup line)
Icing:
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup confectioners' sugar

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour and baking soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition (batter will be thick).

Pour into greased and floured 10 inch fluted tube pan. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

For icing, in a small saucepan combine the butter, brown sugar, and cream. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; cool for 5-10 minutes. Whisk in confectioners' sugar. Drizzle over cake. 12-16 servings.

I just had a small piece of this, and I thought it was a bit dry. But my friend Jill didn't think it was, and she also really liked the icing. That part was good. While Em & Nathan were helping me with the cake, they kept sticking their fingers in the icing that was drizzling off the sides of the plate. So that part at least was good. Kids are pretty smart, and it seemed like a lot of the plates had the icing-covered parts of the cake eaten, and the bottoms left behind, but I can't blame them.

Pear Party Salsa

Emma got this cookbook for free at the checkout at the Natural Living Center. It's called Pearfect Recipes for Kids in the Kitchen. It's all about pears, because it's pear season. She wants to try every recipe in it. We'll see. We made this one for home fellowship last night. Emma wrote a shopping list of the things we needed to make this recipe and one other one that she really wants to try. It was very cute. She did a lot of this recipe herself, because I have the Tupperware Quick Chef Pro, which makes it very easy to make salsa of either the fruit or vegetable variety. I quartered the apples and pears, and put them in there, and then we added the other ingredients and she turned the crank and voila! Salsa. Then you take the blade out, add the other ingredients, put the cover on that comes with it, and you can serve right out of it!! These are awesome and you should get one. I got mine for free when I had a Tupperware party with Rebecca Coffin.

Pear Party Salsa
1 pear, cored and finely chopped (we used 2, because of the crowd at HF)
1 apple, cored and finely chopped (we used 2)
2 kiwis, peeled and finely chopped
1 orange, peeled and finely chopped (she forgot to write this on the list, but I had a can of mandarin oranges that we threw in there)
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp lemon juice
cinnamon graham crackers

Combine pear, apple, kiwi, and orange in a medium bowl. Pour honey and lemon juice over fruit and gently toss. Scoop up mouthfuls of fruit salsa using cinnamon graham crackers.

Most of the grown-ups liked this, but it seemed like most of the kids weren't crazy about it. Even Emma. She just picked the apples and pears out of her portion, and left the kiwi behind. So not a huge hit, but it was fun for us to do together.

Texas Stir Fry

My friend Lisa Norsworthy gave me this recipe. She knows I am part Mexican at heart, and she thought I would like it. She even thoughtfully wrote it on a recipe card for me! That was a nice touch. This is another one, like Taco Pasta from last week, that I've had in my book for a few weeks, waiting for the right time. Because I am OCD about meal planning and meat buying. But that's a tale for another day.

Texas Stir Fry
1 tbsp oil
1 pork tenderloin cut into thin strips
1-2 tbsp chili powder
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped cilantro
1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half (I used a can of diced tomatoes instead)
1 can corn, drained (I used 1 1/2 cups frozen corn)
1/4 tsp salt
Hot cooked rice

Coat the meat with chili powder, then stir fry til done. Remove from pan to bowl. Stir fry onions and garlic for 30 seconds, then add remaining ingredients. Stir fry for a couple minutes, then add pork back and heat through. Serve over rice.

Easy and so so yummy. Next time I will coat the meat with chili powder and salt, since that's the only thing I noticed. Needed a bit more salt. But I am a sodiumaholic. So you might think it's fine. But the 1/4 tsp of salt you're supposed to add, just do it with the chili powder instead of waiting til the end. If you want. I will definitely make this again. It smelled great, the meat was tender, the veggies with it were so yummy! Thanks for sharing with me Lisa!!

Dinner Rolls

I am posting this one for dear friend and faithful blog reader Kristy Chapman. She really wants this recipe. We were on a field trip, and the kids were eating little sandwiches on leftover dinner rolls. I saw somewhere that people call these "sliders" and so that's what the kids were calling them too. They are cute, and the perfect size for kids. Sam could probably eat 2, but I don't make him 2. I just put more meat in his. Also Nathan is very picky, so he likes his meat on the side, and the roll by itself. And NO CHEESE!!! You make these in a bread machine, so it's really easy.

Dinner Rolls
1 1/2 cups water
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 egg
5 1/4 cups bread flour (I usually do 2 cups wheat, and 3 1/4 cups white)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp yeast

Place all ingredients in bread pan in order listed. Use dough setting on bread machine. When cycle is done, Grease 2 cookie sheets. Punch dough down and divide into 3 parts. Divide each of these into 8 parts. Shape each of the 24 pieces into a ball. Place 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Cover; let rise 30 to 40 minutes or until doubled in size. Near the end of the rise time, preheat oven to 375. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

So there it is, Miss Kristy! Easy and yummy. Let me know if you try it!

Ethiopian Vegetables with Garlic & Ginger

This is from Homeward Bound, a fundraising cookbook that my friend Tiffany was (maybe still is?) selling as a fundraiser for her adoption of a little boy from Ethiopia. She asked for contributions from a bunch of people, and then put them all together in this book. I really like the cookbook because it has a good mix of a lot of different kinds of recipes. This one is (as you may have inferred from the title) from Ethiopia. But it sounded tame enough for me to try with the fam. Also it has an Ethiopian name, Yataklete Kilkil. But I'm just going to call it Ethiopian vegetables.

Ethiopian Vegetables with Garlic & Ginger
6 small red potatoes, scrubbed (I used 8, and some of them I had to cut because they were not "small." I really like potatoes and 6 didn't look like enough)
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into pieces (I used baby carrots, already the right size and way less work)
1/2 lb fresh green beans, cut into 2" lengths (I did look for these but they didn't have them at the Walmart, so I used frozen. It was fine)
1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil)
2 onions, coarsely chopped
1 green pepper, finely chopped
2 jalapenos, stemmed, seeded, and minced (I left these out, due to my wimpiness)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp finely chopped ginger root
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper (I happened to already have this, but I think you could just use regular pepper and nothing bad would happen)
6 green onions, cut into 2-inch lengths

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop in potatoes. After 5-6 minutes, add carrots and green beans; cook 5 more minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a stewpot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add onions, green pepper, and jalapenos. Saute 5 minutes, do not brown. Then stir in garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper. Stir 1 minute. Add reserved vegetables and toss gently until coated. Sprinkle on the green onions. Cover the pot and cook on low for 10 minutes. Vegetables should be tender crisp.

My first Ethiopian recipe was a success! This smelled great and tasted great. I wasn't sure this would be a meal in itself, so I warmed up some left over pork roast that I had in the fridge. But I think this would totally be fine with some kind of yummy bread & butter. The veggies are very hearty, and if you make extra potatoes like I did, it would definitely be enough of a meal. This is definitely something I will make again!

Taco Pasta

Second Mexican recipe of the week. This one a friend of mine, and awesome Scentsy consultant, Nicole Cleveland, emailed to me. She remembered that I am part Mexican (at least as far as dietary preferences go...also I WOULD like to get one of those cars with hydraulics so you bounce all around when you drive). I thought it sounded really good so I printed it and have held onto it for a few weeks, waiting for the right time to fit it in. So here it is, with a couple of modifications.

Taco Pasta
1 pound ground beef or turkey (I used hamburger)
8-12 ounces medium pasta shells or other small dry pasta shapes
1 small onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies, undrained (I just used plain diced tomatoes)
4 tablespoons taco seasoning (I used 1 packet)
3 ounces Philadelphia cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cook pasta according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet or sauté pan, cook the ground meat over medium-high heat until no longer pink. A few minutes before the meat is cooked through, add the chopped onion to the skillet. Once the meat is cooked through, mix in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add in the diced tomatoes and taco seasoning and let simmer over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes.

Stir in the cooked pasta, cream cheese, and sour cream, and continue stirring until the cream cheese is melted and the sauce is well blended. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer over medium-low heat 3-5 minutes.

Toss in the cilantro right before serving for some fresh color and flavor. Serve with a green salad.

We did not have this with a green salad, although you certainly could. We just had salad last week. Can't have too much of that stuff. I did add 1 cup of frozen corn in when I added the cream cheese and the sour cream. It was good like that, and then I feel better because we're having a vegetable. Some people say corn shouldn't count as a vegetable, but it grows in the ground. Also, everybody liked this! Nathan and Emma picked around the bigger chunks of tomatoes, but otherwise this was a hit. Also I didn't put cilantro on any of the kids' plates, just mine and Steve's. Definitely a keeper, definitely will make again.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is one of the recipes I found on my second pass through the TOH cookbook. Mondays we have our friends over for supper, and Melissa likes to be a guinea pig. Also her kids usually eat Mexican, so it's a safe bet. Plus I really really like Mexican cuisine. Don't tell Steve, but we are having a very Mexican, and very soupy, week of dinners.

Chicken Tortilla Soup
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
4 oz can chopped green chilies
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (omitted by me)
1 tsp ground cumin
5 cups chicken broth
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with garlic and onion, undrained (I couldn't find these, so just used plain)
3 cans (5 oz each) white chicken, drained (I cooked, cooled, and cubed chicken breast instead of buying the cans)
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro (yummmmmmm)
2 tsp lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Crushed tortilla chips
Shredded MJ cheese or cheddar cheese (I used shredded Mexican because I always have that)

In a large saucepan, saute the onion in oil; add the chilies, garlic, jalapeno and cumin. Stir in the broth, tomato sauce, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; stir in chicken. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add the cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Top with chips and cheese. 7 servings (or in our case, 3 adults and 5 children, and 2 lunch-sized servings leftover)

This was quite flavorful, but not spicy at all. Probably because I left out the jalapeno. I think I am actually contemplating putting it in next time (what?? I know). Nathan & Emma just picked out the chicken, but all the other kids ate it all, and the grown ups liked it too. Another keeper!

Maple Cream Pie

I made this on Friday for home fellowship. At about 4 pm (home fellowship being at 6) while I was getting to the end of the recipe, I noticed this line: refrigerate overnight. Oops. So Emma and I prayed that the pie would not be soupy by the time we were going to eat it. Also we prayed that Miss Becky would have enough room in her fridge, which can sometimes be an issue because they have a big family and buy in bulk. Both prayers were answered with "yes." Phew. Emma did a lot of this recipe with me, which was fun. Usually she will start strong and get bored or distracted, but this one she helped me with from beginning to end. This is from the fall section of the Taste of Home seasons cookbook.

Maple Cream Pie
Pastry for single-crust pie (9 inches) (when I went to the store they didn't have any Pillsbury pie crust, or the store brand. At Walmart or Hannaford. I was very concerned I was actually going to have to make pie crust, which I hate doing. But thankfully, I checked one last time before making this pie and they had gotten restocked!! Phew, again)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup milk, divided
3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp maple syrup, divided (probably I should have used the real stuff, but I didn't)
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 tbsp butter
1 cup heavy whipping cream
sliced almonds, toasted

Line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry; trim and flute edges. Line unpricked shell with double thickness of heavy duty foil; bake at 450 for 8 minutes. Remove foil; bake 5 minutes longer. Cool on wire rack.

For filling, combine cornstarch and salt in a large saucepan. Stir in 1/2 cup milk until smooth. Gradually stir in the remaining milk and 3/4 cup maple syrup. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat; cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat. Stir in a small amount of hot filling into egg yolks; return all to the pan, stirring constantly. Bring to a gentle boil; cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat. Gently stir in butter. Cool to room temperature without stirring.

In a chilled small bowl (or your Tuppeware Quick Chef Pro), beat cream on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold 1 cup cream into cooled filling; spoon into crust. Fold remaining 1 tbsp syrup into remaining cream; frost top of pie. REFRIGERATE OVERNIGHT (hee hee). Garnish with toasted almonds. Refrigerate leftovers. 8 servings.

So I guess this was okay, but it wasn't very maple-y. I bet it would have been more flavorful if it had been real syrup. I don't think many of the kids liked it, but that's okay, I'm used to that. If I always made what kids would like, I would only make cookies. And that would be boring. I love making my home fellowship peeps be my dessert guinea pigs =o)

Garlic and Onion Focaccia

Basically this is pizza without a red sauce. This recipe is near the beginning of the Taste of Home seasons cookbook I've been working through, and I've had it marked for a while, but I kept going by it, thinking it wouldn't be good for a meal, and I would have to save it for some event where we needed an appetizer. But then I just thought, what the hay, I'm going to make it. So I did. We had one of those bagged Caesar salads to go with it, and it was actually a great meal.

Garlic and Onion Focaccia
1 cup water (70-80 degrees)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast
2 large onions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp butter
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

In a bread machine pan, place the first 6 ingredients in the order suggested by your manufacturer (not your ACTUAL manufacturer, which would be God or your parents. They mean your bread machine's manufacturer). Select dough setting. When cycle is completed, turn dough onto floured surface. Roll into 12-inch circle. Transfer to 14-inch pizza pan coated with cooking spray. Cover; let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes.

While dough is rising, in large skillet cook the onions and garlic in butter over medium heat for 15-20 minutes (definitely use 2 onions...I only used 1 because it looked like so much in the pan, but they reduced a LOT and then it didn't seem like enough topping on the final product), or until onions are golden brown, stirring frequently.

With the end of a wooden spoon handle, make indentations in dough at 1-inch intervals. Top with onion mixture and sprinkle with cheeses. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire rack. Cut into wedges and serve warm.

Steve, Sam, and I all LOVED this. Nathan and Emma both cried (real actual tears) when I said I was making onion pizza for supper. So I didn't even try it on them. They had "Blue Box Blues" and had Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (remember that commercial?). This was so good and definitely one I will make again.

French Style Chicken

More cooking with apples!! Because it's fall and I love it! I don't know what's french about this recipe. Nothing jumps out at me. When my mom was here for her and Nathan's party a couple of weeks ago, she was thumbing through this cookbook (the Taste of Home seasons one) because she likes to read cookbooks, like me, and say out loud the things that sound really gross or the things that sound really good. Of this recipe she said, and I'm paraphrasing, "I'm surprised you don't have this one marked, it seems like something you would make." So I took a second look at this one, and then at the whole cookbook, because I thought, "what else have I missed in there?" So I decided to make this one, and a few other recent ones, like the Black Bean Tortilla Pie from last week and the Autumn Sausage Casserole from yesterday. There are a couple more I found on my "second pass" as well. Those Taste of Home people (mostly) know what they're talking about, I guess.

French Style Chicken
6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
3/4 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
1 1/3 cups chicken broth
3 medium unpeeled apples, cut into wedges (I took the cores out)
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4 tbsp apple cider or juice, divided
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp cornstarch
Minced fresh parsley (omitted. Read yesterday's entry if you want to know why)

Sprinkle chicken with lemon pepper. In a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook chicken for 5-6 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 170. Remove and keep warm.

In same skillet, combine broth, apples, onion, 3 tbsp cider, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil. Combine the cornstarch and remaining cider until smooth; stir into apple mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Top with chicken. Sprinkle with parsley.

We had this with mashed potatoes. It smelled great. The sauce was really good over the chicken, and Emma actually ate cooked apples! In the past she has cried when they have been on her plate. I guess they are right when they say to offer a food multiple times. Overall very very good!

Autumn Sausage Casserole

This is what we had last night. It was fabulous. Sam and I had the leftovers for lunch and we both agree that it tasted even better today. I am going to make a double batch next time. I love fall cooking, and cooking with apples and stuff. This is from the Taste of Home Seasons cookbook.

Autumn Sausage Casserole
1 pound bulk pork sausage
1 medium apple, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
3 cups cooked long grain rice (I just used Uncle Ben's brown rice, but I'm sure any kind is okay since you just add it in at the end)
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley (I left that out...I have said this before but I'll say it again: I don't think parsley adds anything, nutrition-wise, and it just makes my kids think they won't like the dish because of the green)
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp pepper

In a large skillet, cook the sausage, apple, onion, and celery over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in remaining ingredients. Transfer to a greased 2-qt baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until heated through.

The kids had a couple of friends over, so 5 kids ate this. Each kid picked out different things. Nathan didn't like the celery, Aspen didn't like the raisins. Emma and Annie ate most of it. Sam ate all of it. So did Steve and I. I hesitated making this one because it didn't seem like enough of a main dish. We just had it with corn, but next time I will make rolls to go with it, or have it with a salad or something. Such a good fall recipe. Yum yum yum.

Black Bean Tortilla Pie

Yummy Mexican-ness. Also meatless, so cheaper. From the TOH Seasons cookbook I've been going through.

Black Bean Tortilla Pie
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped (Dominique's green pepper woot!)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cans (15 oz each) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 1/2 oz) vegetable broth (I used 2 cups of my own stock)
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen corn, thawed
4 green onions, thinly sliced
4 flour tortillas (they were out of white ones, so I bought whole wheat. They don't taste as good, and they are less pliable to use in leftovers, but oh well)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided

In a large skillet, saute onion, green pepper, garlic, cumin, and pepper in oil. Add beans and broth. Bring to a boil; cook until liquid is reduced to about 1/3 cup. Stir in corn and green onions; remove from heat.

Place 1 tortilla in a 9-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray (I don't have one of those, so I used a circular 2-qt baking dish. Mom, if you want to get me a springform pan for Christmas, I think I would like it hee hee). Layer with 1 1/2 cups bean mixture and 1/4 cup cheese. Repeat layers twice (I always end up using more cheese). Top with remaining tortilla. Place pan on baking sheet.

Bake, uncovered, at 400 for 15-20 minutes or until heated through. Remove sides of the pan. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cut into wedges.

We had this with salsa on the side.

This was SO good. We had 5 kids eating this tonight and they all liked it. Steve and I loved it. No leftovers. Definitely a keeper. Really.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon-Cream Cheese Frosting

This is what I made for home fellowship. Actually I couldn't find pumpkin anywhere. I either went to or called every grocery store in the Bangor area, and the only one they had, at one Hannaford, was organic pumpkin pie mix, which had spices and sugar added in. Of course I mean "evaporated cane juice" which is what the organic people say instead of sugar. This recipe starts with a spice cake mix, so I couldn't use the pumpkin pie mix. So I bought squash. One gourd is as good as another, right? They are pretty similar. According to answers.com, Any cooked squash will do with the exception perhaps of spaghetti squash, the texture will be similar. There will be slight variations in color and depth of flavor Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_you_replace_squash_for_pumpkin#ixzz1YBwssgWQ They added that hyperlink, but that's okay so you can see it for yourself. Of course I just now looked that up, so I could confirm it for you guys. I figured it was true. And the cupcakes came out looking like they should, so it is apparently fine. This is the last one I have marked from the Kraft Food & Family Fall 2011.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon-Cream Cheese Frosting
1 pkg spice cake mix
1 cup sour cream (I used vanilla yogurt, because I don't really like sour cream, plus it has way more fat that yogurt)
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (or gourd of your choice...)
1/4 cup oil
3 eggs
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
16 oz pkg powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Heat oven to 350. Beat first 5 ingredients with mixer until well blended; spoon into 24 paper-lined muffin cups. Bake 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cool completely.

Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Gradually beat in sugar. Blend in cinnamon. Spread over cupcakes. Store frosted cupcakes in refrigerator.

I didn't get to eat any of these because I had to work. But Steve said they were good. He left the leftovers at the Hinchliffe's house though, so it makes me doubtful. Because if it was something he totally loved, he would not have left the rest there. So other people that were there will have to chime in. Good recipe for fall, and they smelled great.

Skier's Stew

We had this for supper tonight. It doesn't have any actual skiers in it. I think they mean it would be yummy to eat if you are a skier. Well, I am certainly not a skier. I am actually the opposite of whatever a skier would be. A stander? Anyway, maybe it's a bit too early for soups and stews, but I don't care. We had this with homemade dinner rolls. I made the dough in my bread machine and then made them into rolls from there. A very yummy meal and well received by all. Even the family we borrow on Monday nights all liked this. It's from the Taste of Home Seasons cookbook I'm going through.

Skier's Stew
2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tbsp canola oil
8 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch chunks
6 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 to 1 1/2 cups water (I just used 1 and it was very stewie...if you like it soupier you can use the 1 1/2)
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 envelope onion soup mix

In a large skillet, brown meat in oil on all sides; drain (I hate that step...but I still did it. But I didn't drain it. I think that stuff you would drain makes the soup taste better at the end). Transfer to a 5-qt slow cooker. Top with vegetables. Combine the water, tomato sauce, and onion soup mix; pour over meat and vegetables. Cover and cook on low 4-5 hours (that doesn't sound like long enough to me...I did mine for 4 hours on low, then turned it up to high for the last 2 hours because the vegetables didn't seem done enough) or until meat and vegetables are tender. 8 servings

Usually the kids don't like beef meats that aren't hamburger, because they take too long to chew. They end up keeping the bite in their mouth for like 10 minutes, like some kind of Beef Gum. So gross, I don't know how they do that. But once I had scooped everyone's portion into their bowls, I cut the meat up a bit smaller, and it was so tender, I knew the kids would be fine with it, and they all were. Of course this made the kitchen smell good all day. And everyone ate it. Nobody had to be threatened or anything. So definitely a good one to keep!

Saucy Pan Steak

Steve loves steak and potatoes. Actually I do too. So even though this came from the ad magazine posing as a cooking magazine, Kraft Food & Family, I decided to try it anyway. Minus the mushrooms, because those are slimy and gross. And sometimes poisonous. Too risky.

Saucy Pan Steak
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 portobello mushroom, sliced
1/2 tsp pepper
2 bone-in beef T-bone steaks, 1/2 inch thick
1 cup beef broth
1/4 cup A-1 Original steak sauce (there's the thing they want you to buy. But I already had some)
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 cup hot mashed potatoes (of course I made more than 1 cup of these)

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet on med-high heat. Add onions and mushrooms; cook 6-8 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from skillet.

Rub pepper onto both sides of steaks. Add to skillet; cook 4 minutes, turning after 2 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together broth, steak sauce, brown sugar, and flour.

Top steaks with cooked vegetables and broth mixture; cover. Cook on med-low heat 7-8 minutes or until steaks are medium doneness (160 degrees) and sauce is thickened. Serve with potatoes.

Also we had this with corn. The two little ones think they don't like steak, but that's fine because more for us. Also they think they don't like real mashed potatoes. I already put this on my facebook status, but Emma told me she only likes mashed potatoes from a factory (she means the Betty Crocker instant flavored ones) and Nathan said he only likes potato CHIPS. So Emma had leftover apple pancake from last night and Nathan had chicken nuggets and a banana and corn. So everyone was happy. Except Samuel, who apparently ALSO does not like steak because it's too hard to cut and then chew. So. Steak is wasted on these guys. Steve loved it though. When he put the first bite in his mouth he leaned over to give me a kiss. He never does that. Not even usually with peanut butter desserts. Well he gives me lots of kisses, they're just not usually food related. I feel like I've said too much. Anyway the "gravy" came out really yum, and tasted great on the potatoes. Definitely keeping this one. Also I ended up using all my A1 in this recipe, so I guess Kraft got me one way or the other.

Kung Pao Chicken

I thought Kung Pao was just the name of a movie. Like that spoof kung fu movie Kung Pao: Enter The Fist, where the main character gets in a kung fu fight with a cow, among other ridiculous things (this is not an endorsement of that movie. In fact you probably shouldn't watch it at all). But apparently it's a real thing. Or else the editors at Kraft Food & Family are trying to play a joke on us all. Also I realize that this magazine exists solely to get people to buy Kraft products, in the hope that you will love their recipes so much that they will become regulars in your house and that their products will become staples in your cupboard. My momma didn't raise no fool. But I still bought "that ingredient" anyway. The recipe looked really good in the picture. And it's like Chinese food that you make at home. So we tried it.

Kung Pao Chicken
1/4 cup water
5 cups small fresh broccoli florets (we didn't use this, we had it with carrots, but I didn't cook them, just served them on the side)
1/4 cup Kraft Catalina dressing, divided (see?)
1/4 cup Planters Creamy Peanut Butter (as if I would buy their peanut butter...I just used what I already had)
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp chili sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp minced gingerroot (I bought this in a tube like toothpaste, already minced)
1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs

Bring water to boil in large nonstick skillet. Add broccoli; cover. Simmer on medium-low heat 5 minutes or until crisp-tender. Meanwhile, mix 2 tbsp dressing, peanut butter, soy sauce, and chili sauce until well blended; set aside.

Remove broccoli from skillet (this step was so easy for me ha ha); set aside. Heat remaining dressing in skillet on medium-high heat. Add garlic and ginger; cook and stir 1 minute. Add chicken; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in peanut butter mixture; cook 5 to 7 minutes or until chicken is done and sauce is thickened, stirring frequently to scrape up browned bits from bottom of skillet. Transfer chicken and broccoli to serving plate. Serve with hot cooked rice and garnish with sliced green onions before serving.

Okay so my peanut butter mixture was never saucy. So it never needed to "thicken." It mixed together very well, but stayed the texture of peanut butter. So it kind of burned in the skillet, and didn't stick to the chicken all that well. Still, the chicken was very moist and yummy, and Sam and Emma (and of course Steve & I) all liked it. But Nathan hated it so bad he was crying. He ate a bite and cried the whole time. After the 2nd bite I lost my Mean-Mommy-You're-Going-To-Eat-That-It's-Just-Chicken-And-You-Love-Chicken outlook, and took pity. We didn't make him finish his. I said to him after, "sorry I made something you didn't like buddy." He said, "that's okay Mommy. Next time just try not to make yucky chicken. Just make regular chicken."

Chocolate Frosted Peanut Butter Cupcakes

This is the last one I have marked from the latest Simple & Delicious. It was a contest winner for this "guy food" contest they were having. But anyone can eat them. I made them to bring to home fellowship.

Chocolate Frosted Peanut Butter Cupcakes
1 pkg yellow cake mix
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup canola oil
Frosting:
1 2/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Combine cake mix, peanut butter, eggs, water, and oil in a large bowl; beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium for 2 minutes.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire rack to cool completely.

Place chocolate chips in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream just to a boil. Pour over chocolate, whisk until smooth. Cool, stirring occasionally, to room temperature. Add butter and confectioners' sugar; beat until smooth. Frost cupcakes. Yield 24 (I only got 22 because I only had 22 cupcake papers)

Okay I confess that I just tried one. But to be fair, one wouldn't fit. I have a Tupperware pie keeper that I usually put cupcakes or muffins in when I am bringing them somewhere. But I could only 15 in there, and then 6 in another smaller (Rubbermaid **gasp** don't tell Becky) container, and then 1 lonely cupcake. So the kids and I shared it. It was fabulous. The cupcake was so moist and yummy. Yummy yummy yummy. The frosting was delicious. I still have about 2/3 cup of the frosting left. I was very generous with what I put on each cupcake, but I still have that much left. I put it in a genuine Tupperware container to save for another use, but not sure what that will be. I'm sure Steve will have some ideas, though. Also the frosting wasn't as thick as I think frosting should be, more like a glaze. Hopefully it won't all run off the cupcakes by the time we eat them. But they will still be great no matter what. Definitely a keeper. Yum yum yum.

Salsa Black Bean Burgers

We had these a few nights ago. I guess it was Tuesday night. We really like black beans so I thought they would be worth a shot. It's from the Simple & Delicious mag that I am blazing through.

Salsa Black Bean Burgers
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
2/3 cup dry bread crumbs
1 small tomato, seeded and finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped (instead of using the tomato and jalapeno, I subbed 1/4 cup salsa...I figured the spice would be better, and also less work)
1 egg
1 tsp minced fresh cilantro (which I forgot to buy)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
4 whole wheat hamburger buns, split
Sour cream and guacamole, optional

Place beans in food processor (Tupperware Quick Chef Pro woot!); cover and process until blended. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the bread crumbs, tomato, jalapeno, egg, cilantro, and garlic. Mix until combined. Shape into 4 patties.

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet. Cook patties in batches (I could fit all mine in) over medium heat for 4-6 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Serve on buns. Top with sour cream and guacamole if desired (we didn't).

So these weren't bad, they just weren't that great. The two little ones hated them. The rest of us liked them okay, I guess. They were just kind of bland. Sometimes there would be a flavorful bite but most of the time I just tasted beans. So I'm not saving this one, but I am glad we tried it.

Mexican Chicken Alfredo

This is the next recipe I have marked to make as I blaze through this month's Simple & Delicious. Steve really likes alfredo. I don't love it. But I do love Mexican food. So we tried this. It makes 2 casseroles, we ate one and we are passing the other one along to a family from church that just had a new baby.

Mexican Chicken Alfredo
1 pkg (16 oz) spiral pasta (I used whole wheat rotini)
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
2 jars (15 oz each) Alfredo sauce (I bought Classico's reduced fat version...I hear that you can make your own alfredo from scratch but I've never done it)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup medium salsa (we used mild)
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp taco seasoning

Cook pasta according to pkg directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, cook the chicken, onion, salt and pepper in oil until chicken is no longer pink. Stir in Alfredo sauce; bring to a boil. Stir in cheese, salsa, milk, and taco seasoning.

Drain pasta; toss with chicken mixture. Divide between 2 greased 8-inch square baking dishes.

Cover and freeze one casserole for up to 3 months (or give it to a family with a new baby, if you know one). Cover and bake remaining casserole at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly.

To use frozen casserole: Thaw in fridge overnight. Remove 30 minutes before baking. Cover and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until bubbly.

Really really good. Even the kids liked it. I'm not crazy about alfredo but I liked it too. Steve said he wished there was more of it and he scarfed it down because he ate it so fast because he liked it so much. But no seconds for you, Stevie. We have to share with a family with a new baby. Soooo selfish. =o)

Candy Corn Rice Krispy Treats

Yep. This flies in the face of everything I have been trying to do, dietary-wise, in my family these last couple of years. But something about fall, and fall desserts, and stuff. Sometimes I do things that just aren't rational. So I made these today. They have two big things I've been trying to eliminate (with varying degrees of success...baby steps, right?): refined sugar and artificial color, and they have nothing that I've been trying to add in: nutritional value. But they look so yummy and fallish in the picture. And it's just for once in a while, so I guess it's okay. We are going to have a house full of people tonight, so hopefully we can spread them around and eat them all tonight and a bunch of people will get a little bit instead of our family eating them all. This is from the Fall 2011 Kraft Food & Family which my sister just passed along to me.

Candy Corn Rice Krispy Treats
1/4 cup butter
6 cups mini marshmallows (or 1 bag of the regular-size marshmallows)
12 drops yellow food coloring
4 drops red food coloring (this is to make them orange...I happened to have both of these already)
6 cups rice krispies
2 cups candy corn

Microwave butter in large microwaveable bowl on high 45 seconds or until melted. Add marshmallows; toss to coat. Microwave 1 1/2 minutes or until marshmallows are completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring in food colorings after 45 seconds. (If you don't want to microwave them, do it the old-fashioned way, like me: melt butter in large saucepan over medium low heat. Add marshmallows and stir frequently until melted. Add the food colorings. Then proceed with the rest of the recipe.)

Add cereal and candy corn; mix well. Press onto bottom of 13x9 pan sprayed with cooking spray.

Cool completely before cutting into bars. Cut each bar diagonally in half (to make triangles. I'm planning to not do that part. Just squares for us square Pages ha ha).

So, don't judge me. Just make these if you want. Of course the kids are going to love them.

Celery Seed Brisket

This is another recipe from the latest Simple & Delicious. I always like to make roasts in the crock pot, but it makes a ton of food and a ton of leftovers. But Steve's parents are here from Florida, so I thought this would be good to make for dinner since it would feed a crowd. It's supposed to be brisket, but they didn't have brisket at Walmart, and I just googled "brisket" to find out that it's a tough cut of meat with a lot of connective tissue that must be properly tenderized, usually by slow-cooking, to make it taste good. So maybe it's usually cheaper? Also this is the cut of beef people usually "corn" for corned beef. I just bought the cut of roast that Walmart had. You can't really mess up meat in a crock pot anyway.

Celery Seed Brisket
1 fresh beef brisket (3-4 lbs)
1 can (28 oz) Italian crushed tomatoes (they didn't have this at Walmart either, so I bought garlic seasoned ones and left out the garlic later in the recipe)
1 large red onion, chopped
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp Liquid Smoke
4 tsp cornstarch
3 tbsp cold water

Cut brisket in half; place in 5 qt slow cooker. Combine tomatoes, onion, vinegar, worcestershire sauce, garlic, brown sugar, celery seed, pepper, salt, cumin, and Liquid Smoke in a bowl. Pour over beef. Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours or until meat is tender.

Remove meat to serving platter; keep warm. In a large saucepan, combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Gradually stir in 4 cups cooking liquid. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Slice brisket across the grain; serve with gravy.

Of course this was very easy to throw in the crock pot. I love recipes for the crock pot where you don't have to saute vegetables or brown meat first. Because usually if I'm crock potting, I have to put it in first thing in the morning, when I am (studies and evidence conclusively show) not at my best. So I liked the easiness of the recipe. It also, of course, made the kitchen smell great all day. It also tasted fabulous and the beef was very tender. One thing I didn't do was thicken the cooking juices...I always make a huge mess when I do that, so I just put them on the table in their unthickened form. It was still pretty thick and it tasted great on the meat and potatoes. I made this a few days ago and just haven't posted the recipe, but tonight we had the leftovers of it and the kids were SO excited to eat this again! So we fed 11 people the first time around and then 5 people the leftovers. We had it with mashed potatoes, carrots, and homemade bread. Also these awesome bread and butter pickles that Steve's cousin made. They were so good it almost makes me want to make pickles. So I am definitely keeping this recipe!

Peanut Butter Blondies

Of course I had to make these. This is the type of thing my family loves to eat! It's from the Aug/Sept Simple & Delicious. I have 6 recipes marked to make in this one, and I'm going to try to make them all in this 2 week period...a couple of them I didn't have to buy any ingredients for, or just one ingredient, like the peanut butter cups for this one. We had this for dessert the other night when Steve's parents came over.

Peanut Butter Blondies
2 eggs
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
3 tbsp milk
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
4 peanut butter cups, chopped (you can get these in the candy aisle for $1 for 8 individually wrapped ones...that's cheaper than getting them at the check out)

Beat eggs and brown sugar for 3 minutes in a large bowl. Add peanut butter, butter, and milk; mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; gradually add to sugar mixture, beating just until blended. Stir in the peanut butter cups.

Spread in greased 8-in square baking dish. Bake at 350 for 23-25 minutes or until toothpick comes back clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

So so so yummy. Of course. Easy to make and everyone loved eating them. A simple yummy keeper!

Summer Turkey Salads

Not the "turkey salad" that contains mayo and you eat it on bread or with crackers. I would never never make that (because I detest mayo, for all my new readers [2]). This is just a salad you should make in summer, because it's the peak of blueberry season. I was so so excited when I saw this recipe because we have 2 high bush blueberry bushes that have been very prolific this year and we have harvested (what seems to us like) a lot of blueberries. In years past the berries have been so bitter you could hardly use them. This year they are sweet and perfect, and Steve has been going out every few nights to pick them. As soon as I saw this recipe in the latest Simple & Delicious, I knew I would have to make it. And then once it was made I was so excited because they looked fabulous.

Summer Turkey Salads
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
8.8 oz turkey breast cutlets, cut into strips (I couldn't find these...I did find turkey breast "chops" so I used those)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pkg (5 oz) spring mix salad greens (I used a more palatable mix, but it did have baby spinach)
2 plum tomatoes, cut into wedges (I left these out)
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup mandarin oranges
2 green onions, thinly sliced
Blueberry Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil

Combine flour and salt in a shallow bowl. Place egg in second shallow bowl. Combine walnuts and rosemary in third shallow bowl (good thing I have 3 of these). Coat turkey in flour mixture, then dip in egg, then coat with walnut mixture.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook turkey in batches for 2-3 minutes on each side or until meat is no longer pink.

Divide salad greens among four serving plates (or 3 if you live at my house); top with tomatoes, blueberries, oranges, onions, and turkey strips.

Process vinegar, blueberries, honey, and mustard in a blender (I used my Tupperware Quick Chef Pro...I LOVE that thing!). While processing, gradually add oil in a steady stream (easy to do with the Quick Chef). Serve with salad.

This was a crazy good meal. My only critique is that the vinaigrette was, well, too vinegar-y. I had used a bit less of the vinegar than it called for, because I tend not to like it too much anyway, but next time I will cut it in half. Sam said he liked the salad, except for the "sauce." Steve loved this. He said it was like something you could get at a restaurant, and not even the type we usually frequent, such as KFC. It really looked so nice on the plates, and we loved that we were eating our own blueberries with it. Absolutely keeping this one.

Creamy Mocha Frozen Dessert

I wish this had a more creative name. Because I made it to bring to work. And when my work friends say, "what is this called?" I had to say that long, descriptive, yet boring name. This is from the TOH Seasons cookbook, and it was yet another coffee-containing dessert that I wanted to make that Steve wouldn't like and that I knew I shouldn't make and eat all on my own.

Creamy Mocha Frozen Dessert
2 tsp instant coffee granules
1 tbsp hot water
1 cup Oreo cookie crumbs (I used about 1 row out of 3 in the Oreo package...so I have the rest left to offer as a consolation prize to the fam, if they get mad that I made a dessert they won't like to bring to share with people they don't know)
3/4 cup chopped pecans, divided
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 pkg (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened (I got 1 regular and 1 fat free...so less guilt)
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup chocolate syrup
1 carton (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed (seems like Cool Whip has been frequently featured lately on NRN)

In a small bowl, dissolve coffee granules in hot water; set aside. In another bowl, combine cookie crumbs, 1/2 cup pecans, and butter. Pat into 13x9 baking dish.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Blend in coffee, milk, and chocolate syrup. Fold in Cool Whip and spread over crust. Sprinkle remaining pecans on top. Freeze. 24 servings (or far fewer hungry hospital workers, to include nurses, CNAs, secretaries, and 1 nursing supervisor).

This was really good. Everybody liked it. To quote a few coworkers...Aundra said "it's so good I want to lay down in it and roll around in it." Sheila the Spy said "I don't know, it was really good. I don't know what else to say." Jamie said "scrumdiddlyumptious." And then she looked up how to spell the word, but I had spelled it right already. Sharon said "you can bake for me anytime." So I said, "can I no-bake for you? Because that was a no-bake dessert." She said okay. I left the only remaining piece wrapped up in the freezer for Michelle to eat tonight. We pretty much universally agreed that the crust should be doubled...and it was very thinly spread when I made it. The crust tasted so good, it definitely seemed like it needed more.

Grasshopper Pie

Doesn't that sound great? Just think of the crunch of the grasshoppers. Eww. Really, of course, this is just a minty green pie. It's from the TOH Seasons cookbook I'm going through, and it's in the St Patrick's Day section. Which is 1 page long. Also they have a Mardi Gras section. But this one I think will still be good even though it's not March. I had intended to make this for home fellowship last week, but I was wikkid tired and forgot to take the Cool Whip out of the freezer. By the time I remembered, it was 4:00, and we have to leave the house at 5:30. So no dessert this week. But we didn't get kicked out or anything. It ended up working out though because Steve's BFF from high school who moved to North Carolina came for dinner last night, with my parents and his sweet wife & new baby. So we had it last night.

Grasshopper Pie
1 1/2 cups cold milk
1 pkg (3.9 oz) instant chocolate pudding mix
2 3/4 cup cool whip, divided (basically an 8 oz container)
1 pkg (4.67 oz) Andes candies, chopped, divided (it's annoying that you have to unwrap all of these...I wish they sold them already unwrapped)(also I used my sweet Tupperware choppy thing to chop these...I am getting a lot of use out of that chopper, which I think Stevie did not expect...I bet he thought it would be just another dust collector, but he thought wrong)
1 chocolate crumb crust (9 inches) (you probably could make your own but I didn't, I bought one)
1/4 tsp mint extract
2 drops green food coloring, optional

In a small bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Fold in 3/4 cup cool whip. Fold in 3/4 cup candies. Spoon into crust.

In another bowl, combine extract and remaining cool whip; add food coloring if desired. Spread over pudding layer; sprinkle with remaining candies. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or until set. 8 servings.

This was very yummy! Everyone seemed to like it. Shelley is like a spy and was able to guess all the ingredients while she was eating it. That was cool. It came together so easy and everyone liked it. Definitely going to keep this one. Even though Andes candies are expensive, and even though I had to unwrap each one.

Morning Maple Muffins

Just to be rebellious, we had these for supper last night, even though it says "morning". We love having breakfast for supper. Also I am useless in the mornings so I could never pull this off then. Anything more complicated than a coffee pot has to wait. This is from the TOH Cooking through the Seasons book.

Morning Maple Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup sour cream (I used plain yogurt)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla (I bet you could use vanilla yogurt instead of plain and leave out this vanilla)
Topping:
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp chopped nuts (I badly wanted to include these, because I have pecans in the cupboard, but I knew the kids wouldn't eat them then. So I left them out)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp cold butter

In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, combine the milk, butter, syrup, sour cream, egg, and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full. For topping, combine flour, sugar, nuts, and cinnamon; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter (then press down slightly with the back of a spoon and it will stay on better while you're eating it).

Bake at 400 for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Serve warm. 16 muffins (that is a dumb yield for muffins. I made ours be 18, but you can do what you want).

The kids loved these. We had them with "cheesy eggs" and sausage. Emma called them syrup muffins. It probably would be nice if they had real maple syrup in them instead of the fake stuff, but that's okay. Definitely keeping this recipe!

Heavenly Earth Burgers

This was my first foray into veggie burgers. I had been wanting to try this recipe for a while, just to see how it would be received, but you need a food processor and I (still) don't have one. But I do have my Tupperware choppy thing, so I thought I would try it in there. It worked pretty well. I was going to make these on my George Foreman grill, but they didn't really hold together all that well so I just made them in a skillet like it says to. They were only a little crumbly. This recipe is from my Christmas cookbook from my mom, the TOH Cooking Through the Seasons. I haven't made anything out of it for awhile because there were so many recipes to make out of the Simple & Delicious magazines, but I made all the marked ones so I am back into this. The other day I got a new magazine so of course I'll start going through that one soon.

Heavenly Earth Burgers
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup sunflower kernels
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs (I ended up having to add more because I had bit less rice than it called for)
1/2 cup shredded carrot
3 tbsp minced fresh parsley
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 egg
1 egg white
1 cup garbanzo beans or chick peas, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 tsp canola oil
6 whole wheat hamburger buns, split (I also grilled them to make the kids want to eat them more)
6 lettuce leaves
6 slices tomato (nope)
6 slices onion (we had red onion left from another recipe so I used that)

In a large bowl, combine the first 8 ingredients. In a food processor, combine the egg, egg white, and garbanzo beans. Cover and process until smooth. Stir into rice mixture. Shape into 6 patties.

In a nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook patties in oil for 5-6 minutes on each side or until lightly browned and crisp. Serve on buns with lettuce, tomato, and onion.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well these were received. Of course the little ones didn't like them, but really you can't go by that. I just gave them some of the crumbles that came off the burgers while they were cooking, and gave them a grilled bun separately. They each tried it, and neither of them liked it. But Sam loved them! He said, "if we were vegetarians, we could eat these like 5 times a week." Steve and I were both surprised by how good they were. They were also extremely filling. Mine sat like a rock in my stomach for about 2 hours after I ate it. Good for appetite control, ha ha. So I will keep this recipe. I don't know how often I'll make it, but it was good. We had these with tater tots and/or curly fries (kids' choice). No veggie on the side since it was a veggie burger. Can't have too much of that at one meal, you know.