Mexican Rice

Is it possible that I haven't ever posted this??  It's a family staple.  We have as often as every other week, probably, since I have all these ingredients on hand dependably.  It's ready to eat in less than 40 minutes, and something that everybody in the family devours (except Clara, but she will soon!)  Both versions are yummy, and there are pros and cons to both.  I have done all kinds of variations, including using chorizo or ground pork instead of hamburger, chili beans instead of black beans, fresh tomatoes or any version of canned (including additional sauce or crushed tomatoes).  This last time I even threw in handfuls of finely-chopped spinach at the very end for extra nutrition, and it actually made it prettier to eat!

The original recipe is here, and used to be on the back of the Rice-a-roni box.  Travis originally made this in college, and I think it was his adaptation to eat it with tortilla chips.  I'll give him credit - that's 90% of the genius of the dish!  I developed the homemade version because I think rice-a-roni is ridiculous because, duh, I have rice and seasonings in my pantry, and who needs all that salt??  But if I have the rice-a-roni on hand, Travis will use it and make dinner for the family on occasion, which is a total redeemer for the boxed stuff. My standard disclaimer, of course: I never actually measure as I'm cooking, so beware of the amounts.

Enjoy!

Mexican Rice Dinner (with the box)

1 package Mexican-Style Rice-a-Roni

½ lb. ground beef

½ of one large green pepper, diced

1 ¾ C. water

1 C. frozen corn

½ can of black beans

1 can diced tomatoes (with green chiles or jalapenos is good!)

Shredded cheese for topping

Tortilla chips for dipping

 

Brown the ground beef and green pepper, and drain.  Add the rice-a-roni, water, seasoning mix, corn, black beans, and tomatoes.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes until rice is tender.  Top with cheese and eat each bite with the tortilla chips.

Mexican Rice Dinner (without the box)

1 C. rice

1 lb. ground beef

1 large green pepper, diced

2 T. flour

2 tsp. chili powder

½ tsp. cumin

salt and pepper

1 ¾ C. water

1 C. frozen corn

1 can of black beans

1 can diced tomatoes (with green chiles or jalapenos is good!)

Shredded cheese for topping

Tortilla chips for dipping

Brown the ground beef and green pepper, and drain.  Sprinkle the flour over the meat (aim for the remaining fat) and add spices, salt, and pepper.  Add the rice, water, corn, black beans, and tomatoes.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes until rice is tender.  Top with cheese and eat each bite with the tortilla chips.

Chicken Pot Pie

Okay, there's not really anything new or novel about this recipe, but it's really simple, and sooooo tasty.  I've made this a couple of times using my precooked chicken that I like to do, with six giant chicken breasts, roasting them off all at once in the oven.  I've got an easy seasoning that i put on it - S&P, garlic powder, thyme - and then it's ready for anything.  I pick the meat off and put it in the freezer, but then it's so easy to throw the bones and skins into a pot with some water and let them simmer for a couple hours for some super-tasty stock.

So, with precooked chicken and stock available, this recipe is a snap! Of course, you can use frozen mixed veggies in place of fresh, but I had carrots and green beans on hand and used frozen peas and corn.  And you could use canned biscuit topping, but it's not nearly as good as this recipe.  I use a biscuit cutter to get rounds, and smash them out, if I need to, to fit overtop the ramekins. 

Chicken Pot Pie

½ C. each green beans, peas, corn, and carrots (chopped)

1 T. oil

1 T. butter

2 T. flour

1 C. chicken stock or broth

½ C. milk

1 C. cooked chicken, chopped

Saute the carrots and green beans in the oil and butter.  Add the flour, and let cook for a minute.  Add the liquid, and let simmer until thickened.  Add the chicken, and turn the heat down until ready to add to ramekins.

Prepare the biscuit topping (below).  Spoon the filling into ramekins, and top with topping, baking according to recipe directions.

Buttermilk Biscuits

1 ¾ C. flour

4 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. cream of tartar

¼ tsp. baking soda

1/3 C. butter / shortening

¾ C. buttermilk

Mix flour with baking powder, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda.  Cut in butter.  Add buttermilk and stir with fork until soft dough is formed.  Place dough on lightly floured board and knead 20 times.  Pat or roll lightly until dough is ½” thick.  Cut with floured 2-inch cookie cutter.  Brush with melted butter.  Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 450° for about 12 min.  Makes 12 biscuits.

Raspberry Pecan Cake Balls

So, cake balls are all the rage these days, and I've gotta say, I have not been that impressed.  First off, if you put them on a lollipop stick, they are IMPOSSIBLE to eat.  They are generally made with canned frosting (sorry, but, bleh!) and by the time they're mashed and molded, the texture is awful.  And then dip them in almond bark?  It's so sweet at that point that it makes the back of my jaws hurt just to think about it.

But, what do I do with my leftover cake scraps and frosting from the Hello Kitty cake that I made for Audrey's birthday?  I came up with this:  substitute seedless raspberry jam for some of the frosting, and roll the balls in nuts instead of dipping in almond bark.  Serve in a bowl with ice cream and chocolate syrup, and it's like, gourmet cake balls.  Mmmmm!  As usual with my recipes, the amounts are approximate, but not important, because as long as you do it to your taste, you'll like it.  Right? :)

Raspberry Pecan Cake Balls

1 9x13 cake (baked)

1 C. frosting

1/2 C. seedless raspberry jam

½ C. chopped pecans

Ice cream

Chocolate syrup

If your cake is cold, heat up the frosting 10 – 15 seconds in the microwave until it’s slightly runny.  Add the raspberry jam, and stir well.  Roll the cake balls into 1” balls, and roll in the pecans.  Serve with ice cream and chocolate syrup.

Hamburger Zucchini Comfort Food

Travis took the kids to the park while I made supper tonight, so I had a bit more brainpower available to be creative.  I came up with this really yummy stew, I guess you'd call it.  I think you could thin it out for soup, but it was really good as almost a gravy over half a batch of this polenta.  The girls hated the polenta, though, so next time I would serve it over mashed potatoes.  With crispy sweet pickles, if you have them.  :)  Mmmmm!!!

And in case you haven't picked up on the trend, dinnertime at my house is an adventure in finding different ways to serve meat, beans, and potatoes, while hiding as many nutritious veggies as I can as tiny bits in a tasty sauce.  Bonus points for using up leftover ingredients from previous meals, but docked points for making it too creamy for dear hubby.

Hamburger Zucchini Stew

1 lb ground beef

1 large zucchini

½ green pepper, diced

½ tsp. onion flakes

½ tsp. garlic powder

Salt and pepper

½ tsp. dried basil

½ can of chicken broth

1 can of white (great northern) beans

½ can of mushroms

Brown the ground beef, and chop up the zucchini into bite-sized cubes.  Add the veggies and seasonings to browned beef, and use the broth to scrape up the browned bits off the bottom of the pan.  Add the beans and mushrooms, and simmer until ready to serve.

Cabbage Hamburger Dinner

It's too warm to really be fall yet, but my tummy was craving something hearty.  I adapted a soup recipe for a stovetop casserole, which is one of my family's favorite style of food.  Smells pretty good in here!

Cabbage Hamburger Dinner

1 lb. ground beef

3 - 4 C. cabbage, chopped

16-oz. can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

 8-oz. can tomato sauce

1 C. carrots, diced

½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp dried minced onion

½ tsp. dried parsley

salt and pepper

In Dutch oven or large skillet, brown beef.  Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for 1 hour or until cabbage and carrots are tender.

Pumpkin Muffins

It's 53° this morning, so I decided to heat up the kitchen for breakfast.  Time for some fall spice! 

Pumpkin Muffins

1 28-oz can of pumpkin

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. allspice

1 ½ C. white sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup melted margarine or butter

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 C. flour

1 C. whole wheat flour

1 C. raisins

Mix pumpkin, spices, sugar, eggs, and butter.  Mix dry ingredients, and combine with wet. Pour into 24+ muffin tins, and bake at 350°F for 25 - 30 min.

Chili Cornbread

I make this all the time, and I can't remember where I got the idea so I'm not sure it's really an original recipe.  But it's really tasty, and very simple.  I used to put onions in it, of course, but haven't really missed them since taking them out of our diets.  The flavor varies every time I make it, since I use all different variations of canned beans and tomatoes, and even used half hamburger and half chorizo which was super tasty also.  So, you can't go wrong, really!

Chili Cornbread

1 lb. ground beef

1 green pepper, diced

1 can chili beans or black beans

1 can diced tomatoes (w/chilies, opt.)

Chili powder and cumin, to taste

Salt and pepper

1 box Jiffy cornbread mix

1/3 C. milk

1 egg

Cheddar cheese, for serving

Brown the ground beef in the skillet.  Add the diced green pepper, beans, and tomatoes.  Season to taste (depending if you use chili beans or not, or unsalted tomatoes, etc.).  Prepare the cornbread mix with milk and egg.  Transfer the beef mixture to ramekins, for individual servings, or leave in an oven-safe skillet to serve family style.  Pour the cornbread mix overtop, and bake 15 – 20 min at 400°F.  Top with cheese for serving.

Zucchini Rice Casserole

It's zucchini season! Yummmm.

This is a recipe I wrote down quite a while ago, before I had kids.  If I were to do it now, I would probably take some shortcuts, but it's definitely good this way.  And I think I was using storebought zucchini, so my definition of "large zucchini" is much smaller (as in, not a baseball bat). 

Zucchini Rice Casserole

1 cup cooked rice

2 large zucchini, sliced 2” wide, ¼” thick

1 lb. hamburger

½ onion, diced

salt & pepper

½ tsp. oregano,1 tsp. basil

½ tsp. red pepper flakes

mushrooms, sliced and sautéed (optional)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

2 cups shredded mozzarella

Lay zucchini on a cookie sheet and brush with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Broil until slightly tender, flip until they start to brown (maybe 5 min./side?)  Saute hamburger, onion, and seasonings together.  Add tomatoes and sauce.   Layer ½ zucchini, ½ rice, ½ meat sauce, ½ cheese, repeat.  Bake until heated through.    

Leftover Lunch

This probably only came together because I had the right kind of leftovers, but it was so good that i'm writing it down anyway. 

1 T. butter
1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced (1/8" to 1/4" cubes)
1 large apple, diced slightly larger than the sweet potato
~1 C. leftover pork roast, in bite size pieces
2 T. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 T. apple juice, or more

Saute the sweet potato in the butter until it's starting to get soft, then add the apples.  Once everything is getting soft, add the pork, sugar, and cinnamon, and season with salt and pepper.  Use the apple juice to deglaze the pan.

I'm not sure on the amount of juice, because I just used a splash straight from the bottle.  If it seems dry, add more.  And if the potatoes need a little more time to soften, you can stick a lid on it and simmer on low for a few minutes.  (This is the incentive to cut them up small).

Served 1 hungry nursing mom and 2 little girls, so that's probably 2 regular adults.  I should've taken a picture of it, because it was actually a really yummy-looking dish!

Zucchini Risotto

We had this the other night with beer can chicken, which we had on the side instead of adding in to the dish.  Easy way to get my girls to eat something green!  There's enough parmesan cheese and it's creamy enough that the girls think that the stringy-ness is due to all the cheese, instead of from the squash, which you really can't taste at all.  mua ha ha!

Zucchini Risotto

6 C. water

2 chicken bouillon cubes

1 T. olive oil

2 C. medium-grain rice or Arborio

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1/8 tsp. oregano

Salt and pepper

1 small to medium zucchini, finely grated

½ C. grated parmesan cheese

2 C. cooked, diced chicken

Add bouillon cubes to the water and bring to a boil.  Saute the rice in olive oil, and add the liquid to the rice one ladleful at a time, stirring frequently in between for about 15 minutes.  Add seasonings, and when the rice is fully cooked, add the zucchini, chicken and parmesan.  Bring back to a simmer before serving.

Spiced Pecan Pie Bars

I served these as my "southern" component of our Mexibikentucky party last night (Cinco de Mayo, and a Kentucky Derby-inspired 1.25 mile bike race around the neighborhood).  I originally found this recipe in a Taste of Home cookbook, but I added the spices, based on a nut-mix recipe that I've made, I think from a Food Network website.  I also messed with the nut:goo:crust ratio a bit, since the original was more like pecan pie with a thick, pointless goo layer and not enough pecans.  You can spice these up more than the amount that I have here, because these weren't noticeably spicey, just tasty.  And most people agree - they're better than pecan pie, and a whole lot easier!  You can't really do a half-recipe, but a 1/3 recipe might work well in a 8" square pan.

Spiced Pecan Pie Bars

3 C. flour (can substitute 1 C. whole wheat flour)

½ C. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 C. butter

3 eggs

1 C. sugar

¾ C. dark corn syrup

½ C. light corn syrup

3 T. butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla

3 C. chopped pecans (10 oz.)

1/8 tsp. each cumin, cayenne, and cinnamon

Combine flour, sugar, and salt, then cut in butter until crumbly.  Press onto the bottom of a greased 15 x 10 pan.  Bake at 350° for 20 min.

For filling, combine eggs, sugar, syrups, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl; mix well.  Stir in pecans.  Pour over crust.  Bake 25 – 30 min longer or until edges are firm and center is almost set.  Cool on wire racks.  Cut into bars, and refrigerate until serving.  Yields 3-4 dozen.

Taco-ish meat

Travis has a knack for picking up something random at the store (HyVee in this case), and then it turns out to be awesome and becomes a family favorite.  He did it with the 12-grain bread that he subsists on, and also with this chorizo.  You should look at the link because the distinctive packaging is almost more helpful than the brand name (Purnell's Old Folks).  It really is SO good.  It's not hot-spicy, just a really good balance of flavors.  I believe it's mostly or entirely pork, and not the leanest of meats but not nearly as greasy as some ground beef I've used, which is pretty good considering it IS sausage. It browns up nicely and is easy to add to all kinds of things because the seasoning balance is so nice.  Really - you start frying it and suddenly the kitchen is full of people saying, "It smells good in here! What's for supper??"

Last week, I did this:
1/2 lb. chorizo
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 can of plain diced tomatoes
Brown the meat, add the veggies, and serve over fried potatoes and top with a fried egg.

The other night, I added the peppers and tomatoes in and also a bunch of chopped asparagus, and served it over leftover rice.  I suppose either version would be good topped off with cheese, but I didn't think of it and they were super tasty anyway.

My next plan is to mix it half-and-half with ground beef, adding a can of tomato sauce for a really easy taco meat, maybe to put in enchiladas?  I get tired of the taste of the taco seasoning packets, and annoyed with them being primarily salt and food coloring, so lately I've been just adding my own chili powder, cumin, oregano, S&P, and flour to plain ground beef.  But, relying on this chorizo for flavor is way easier and a nice change of pace.

Mommo's Fudge Cake

I haven't posted much lately because we have been eating some pretty lousy dinners around here.  It's sure hard to feel like standing in the kitchen for an hour at the end of a long day, so we go with scrambled eggs or pathetic concoctions of leftovers.  My family has been nice enough to not complain too much - perhaps because I seem to have kept up on the desserts well enough.  (Baby likes sweets!)  So, here is my grandmother's chocolate cake recipe that we've been enjoying this past week.  She got this recipe from a friend years ago who was reluctant to share it because she knew that replications of the cake would probably turn out different than the one she just served.  Apparently she found the batter so delicious that her cake was significantly thinner than if you bake all of the batter.  She's right - it's goooood, baked or not!  And it's easy, nothing fancy to throw this together.  My girls helped me put plain vanilla frosting and sprinkles on top, but I grew up having this cake with meringue or chocolate frosting on it... you really can't go wrong!

Mommo’s Fudge Cake

2 squares Bakers unsweetened chocolate

1 C. boiling water

1 stick butter

2 C. flour

½ tsp. salt

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

2 C. sugar

½ C. buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat to 350°.  Add water and butter to chocolate, and stir til melted (or microwave all 3 together, stirring frequently until melted), and cool.  Sift together flour, salt, and soda; add to chocolate mixture.  Add sugar, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla.  Bake in 9x13” pan for 35 minutes.

Fruit Skewers

Again, hardly a recipe, but I thought these were tasty and easy and a bit fancier-tasting than standard fruit salad, although sticky to prepare. :)

1/2 a fresh pineapple
1 fresh mango
1/2 pint of fresh strawberries
36 purple grapes
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/16 tsp. ginger

Cut up the fruit so there are 36 bite-size pieces of each kind.  Add them to a bowl that has the spices mixed in it, mix well and let sit for a couple of minutes.  Add one of each kind of fruit onto 36 4" skewers.

Sausage with Apples and Onions

This was a seriously easy dinner.  I made mashed potatoes, and steamed some broccoli to go along with this.  I think it ends up being fewer than 10 ingredients for the entire meal, and everybody gobbled it up.  I was surprised that this ended up being a meal where I didn't have to beg my kids to take bites of things!

Sausage with Apples and Onions:

1 lb Hillshire Farm smoked sausage, sliced into 1/2 pieces
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 apple, diced
1/2 tsp. beer'n'brat mustard
salt and pepper

Get the sausage slices browned, and after flipping to the other side, add the apples and onions to the pan.  Brown until the onions are soft and the apples are starting to brown, then add in the mustard.  Season with salt and pepper.

I made a gravy out of the pan drippings by adding about 1 tsp. of flour to the fat remaining in the pan, then adding about 2 T. apple juice and 1/4 to 1/2 C. water, with salt and pepper to season.  There wasn't much fat left in the pan to work with, so it didn't make much, but it was enough to be tasty on the potatoes, anyway.

"Fruit" Smoothies

I was trying to get my kids to eat carrots for lunch, and I decided to give this a try, inspired by V8 fruit and veggie blends.  It's another of my "throw it all together and see what happens" creations, which means of course the amounts are approximate.  You really can taste the raw carrots in it, but my girls were won over by the novelty and bright purple color, and they LOVED it.  I am hoping that doing stuff like that will give them a chance to see that they actually do like the taste of carrots - but I'm sure not going to tell them what's in it!  According to an online recipe analyzer, it's full of vitamins A and C, phosphorus, potassium, and fiber, and it sure made my life easy trying to figure out a vegetable for lunch.

“Fruit” Smoothies

1 ½ C. carrots

1 apple (skin on, but no core, of course)

½ C. water

1 6-oz. container vanilla yogurt

½ to 3/4 C. frozen raspberries and blueberries

Combine all ingredients in blender and run until very smooth.

Rasta Pasta

I've been working on this recipe for probably 5 years now.  If I ever enter a recipe competition, this would be what I submit!  We originally had a dish like this at a restaurant in Beaverdale, but the last time we went there for this dish, it had changed completely and Travis said he much preferred my version.  It's sweet and spicy to whatever your preference is, and if you have precooked chicken in the freezer (there I go again preaching about that!) it can be ready in the time it takes your noodles to boil.  It's too much flavor for my kids, so I boil the whole box of noodles and save out some unsauced chicken and noodles for their plates, and then do a sweet potato in the microwave for their veg.  Seriously, a 30 minute dinner for us!

If you don't have precooked chicken, you can use the spice combo to rub on the chicken and either roast it in the oven or saute it in the same pan you build the sauce on top of.

Rasta Pasta

2 C. cooked chicken breast, bite size

1 T. chili powder

1 T. jerk seasoning (Penzey’s)

½ to 1 tsp. mustard powder

½ tsp. allspice

1 tsp. hot sauce, optional (Sriracha's is what I have on hand)

1/3 C. juice from can of pineapple chunks

<½  C. sugar

¼ C. vinegar

2 T soy sauce

¼ C. Mango-chipotle sauce (Bronco Bob's, from World Market)

1/3 C. water + 2T cornstarch

2/3 box of penne or rotini

1 T. oil
1 sliced green pepper, 2 sliced green onions, and 1 small can chunk pineapple

Boil the pasta by box directions.  Combine the pineapple juice through mango-chipotle sauce and the spices, and once brought to a boil, add the chicken to the sauce to reheat it.  Stir fry the veggies and pineapple in oil, and add to the sauce. Thicken the sauce with the cornstarch and water mix, and add to the pasta.

Fried Potatoes

Most people have french fries or tots in their freezer, and I suppose I probably do, too, but I generally prefer to make fried potatoes.  It was a beautiful day outside so Travis grilled our burgers, and I made a batch of these to go with.  I don't have a recipe, really, it's more of a method with general guidelines.  But pretty foolproof, and just as tasty as fries with less fat and salt. The keys to really crispy taters are fully-cooked potatoes that have cooled a bit, a very hot cast-iron skillet, and not stirring too much.  I leave the skins on the potatoes, because I have established with my kids that they have to eat the peels of things.  It works out well since that's the most nutritious part of foods, and I'm far too lazy to peel things for them... and they don't know any different. mua ha ha ha!!

Place 3-4 baking potatoes in the microwave and cook (on the potato setting, if your microwave has it) until fully done.  Meanwhile, get the cast-iron skillet hot and add 1-2 T of oil. Slice the cooked potatoes into bite-size chunks and let the steam escape, then carefully place them in the very hot oil.  Let them sit and get crispy on one side before turning the chunks around in the pan, about 10 minutes.  Once they're browned, add salt and pepper, and serve with ketchup. (of course!)

Arlene's Apple Bread

This is Arlene Trettin's recipe.  She used to give this bread out as door prizes at the annual Christmas party for my mom's young mother's group, and apparently it was quite the incentive to win the games!  She died this week at the age of 92, and her funeral was today.  My house smells like apples and spices, and I'm enjoying thinking of her as it bakes.  She was a kind and lovely person, and an amazing cook.  You'll see other recipes from her on this blog, I'm sure.

I only use half the poppy seeds, but other than that I follow this exactly.

Arlene’s Apple Bread

4 C. peeled, finely diced apples       

2 eggs

½ C. oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1½ C. sugar

2 C. flour

2 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. cloves

½ C. chopped walnuts or pecans

½ C. raisins              

¼ C poppy seeds

Bake in two loafpans for 1 hour at 350. I put it into small pans, so just test with a toothpick to check doneness.

Eggplant Bhurtha

This is my favorite way to eat eggplant.  I did the whole Indian dinner tonight, with pork kebabs that were marinated in curry paste and buttermilk (didn't have any plain yogurt on hand) and then roasted under the broiler, and basmati rice and naan bread.  Sooooo tasty.  Once again, I can't say this recipe is an original of mine, although I did improve the directions over what I found on the internet recipe, and adapted it for those of us who don't keep whole spices and a spice grinder on hand!

Indian Eggplant - Bhurtha

1 eggplant

2 T. vegetable oil

1 medium onion, sliced

½ tsp. ground cumin

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp. chopped fresh ginger

1 14-oz. can tomatoes

1 tsp. curry powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

ground black pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (opt.)

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Coat the outside of the eggplant with oil, and roast in 375° oven for 30 – 40 min.  Cut in half to help it cool, and then remove the skin and chop the flesh into cubes. While eggplant cools, heat the oil in the skillet and add onions, cumin, garlic, and ginger.  Once onions are soft, add the tomatoes and seasonings.  Add the eggplant, and then simmer for ~10 minutes to allow to reduce.   Garnish with cilantro, and serve with rice and naan bread.

Pizza Sauce

I have always wondered why jarred pizza sauce from the grocery store tastes so nasty compared to what comes on pizza from restaurants.  So a couple of years ago, I decided to make my own, and I haven't looked back.  The only change I've made recently is to cut out the onions due to Audrey's intolerance of them, and replace the garlic with garlic powder.  At that point, you can make it cold and omit the olive oil too, but I like to simmer the sauce together while I get the rest of the pizza ready to go.

This recipe makes enough for 1 large pizza.  I often triple or quadruple it so I've got 1-cup servings ready in the freezer for pizza night.  But a serious disclaimer on this is that this is more of an ingredient list than a recipe, because I measure all the herbs out in my hand instead of a measuring spoon (lazy!).  So if it seems way off, just add what you like instead!

Pizza Sauce

2 cloves garlic

1 T. onion, minced

¼ tsp. red pepper

2 tsp. olive oil

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 T parsley flakes

1 tsp. basil

½ tsp. oregano

Dash of ground thyme

Salt and pepper

Saute first four ingredients until onions are soft.  Reduce heat and add tomato sauce and herbs.

Chicken Curry Risotto

I'm not a food photographer.  It was beautiful and delicious. You'll just have to believe me!

Another dish that can be made start-to-finish in <30 min, if you have precooked chicken on hand in the freezer.  A few tips: you can reheat the chicken by simmering it in the liquid that's boiling.  Medium-grain rice works fine for this - no need for the more expensive Arborrio rice.  Also, the dish has enough flavor that you can use mostly water instead of chicken broth, or use all water and add a couple of bouillon cubes when you add the spices.  The dish also needs salt and pepper, but I have no clue on the amounts.  I may have overestimated how much broccoli I threw in and underestimated the raisins (They're so sweet and good - I don't think you can add too many!).

Chicken Curry Risotto

6 C. chicken broth (or half water)

½ tsp. cumin

1 tsp. curry powder

2 C. medium-grain rice (Arborrio)

1 T. olive oil and/or butter

2 stalks celery, diced

½ C. raisins

2 C. broccoli, cooked (steamed in microwave for 5 min.)

2 chicken breasts, cooked & chopped

In a saucepan, boil the broth/water, and add cumin and curry powder.  In a frying pan, sauté the celery in the fat, and then add rice.  Once the rice has toasted, add the broth a few ladles at a time, waiting for the liquid to be completely absorbed before adding more.  About halfway through adding the liquid, add the raisins to the rice.  When all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked, add the broccoli and chicken.

Strawberry Shortcake

For my littlest Valentines, we made a special dessert.  Emily had a great time with an idea we found in Family Fun magazine, where you put a marble in between the cupcake liner and the muffin tin so the cupcakes come out heart-shaped.

The following is a recipe from my grandmother, and actually I think her mother adapted it from a pineapple upside-down cake, obviously by omitting the pineapple part.  It's been a staple through my childhood, and it's so incredibly easy to make.  I like it best soaked in milk (or cream!) with berries on top.

Shortcake

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat eggs well.  Add sugar and water and beat.  Sift in flour and baking powder.  Add vanilla and beat.  Bake at 350 in a 8x8 pan for 30-35 minutes, or 12 cupcakes for 20-25 min.

Chili Chicken Lunch

I adapted one of Travis's favorite fallback lunch recipes into something that the girls liked a little better.  I'll post the Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe sometime, but the girls find soup hard to eat, for some reason.  This was SO simple to make, ready in ~20 min, and everyone loved it.  The four of us ate every bite.  There are so many uses for pre-cooked chicken that I always have some in my freezer.  Whenever it goes on sale, I buy bone-in breasts, 6 chickens worth, and roast them in the oven for an hour at 375°, then pick the meat off the bones and pop it in the freezer.

If usually use Dei Fratelli Mexican Tomatoes in my tortilla soup, because the spice is sufficient for the whole dish that way, but this needed the extra chili powder and cumin, I thought.

Chili Chicken Lunch

½ lb. elbow macaroni

1 can diced tomatoes with green chilis

1 can cream of cheddar cheese soup (or a little less)

½ can of black beans

½ C. corn

1 chicken breast, cooked and diced

2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

Boil pasta per package directions.  Add all ingredients in a soup pot and simmer while the pasta cooks.  Combine and serve.

Balsamic Chicken Marinade

This is my fallback chicken marinade.  We're having it grilled tonight because it's balmy 56° out -woohoo!

Balsamic Chicken Marinade

1 medium clove of garlic

3 T. balsamic vinegar

3 T. olive oil

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken

Place all ingredients in a ziplock bag for about 30 minutes, then bake at 350° for 25 min or grill until fully-cooked.

Waffles with yogurt

You wish you had breakfast at my house this morning. This is one of the girls' favorites.


Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Buttermilk Waffles

2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ C. cooking oil
¼ C. applesauce
1 ¼ C. buttermilk
1 C. flour
¾ C. whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. cinnamon


Mix wet ingredients, then and add dry. Bake in hot waffle iron. Makes about six ½-cup waffles.

Spinach Pesto with Chicken

Pesto pasta is a great mixup to your pasta routine, and if you've got the right ingredients and a food processor, it can be prepared in less time than it takes the pasta to boil.  Last night, I started cooking at 6:10 and we were eating by 6:30 - yeah!!  Fresh basil is expensive and requires planning ahead, in my mind, but fresh spinach is cheap and almost always in my drawer so using it with dried basil is a great fake and the only way my kids will consume spinach.  I have seen pesto recipes with all kinds of different nuts, so you can substitute the almonds for walnuts, if you need to.

Audrey isn't a fan of the strong garlic flavor, but Travis says that 1 clove is on the weak side for him!  However, if you reheat the leftovers, then the garlic gets cooked and is much less strong.  But, then it's not as creamy/cheesy, and the spinach gets cooked too, so it's pretty much a different dish.

I apologize in advance if the amounts aren't quite right - I don't ever measure when I make this (handfuls and approximations, especially the olive oil).  But considering that, I probably use a different amount each time and it's always tasty, so the pressure's off, right?  Also, I often leave out the chicken, mostly because I'm forgetful.

Spinach Pesto

1 lb penne or bowtie pasta

¼ C. sliced almonds

1 large clove garlic - peeled

1/3 C. parmesan cheese

½ - ¾ bag fresh spinach (fill the food processor)

½ tsp. dried basil

Salt and pepper

3 T. olive oil

1 chicken breast (cooked, diced)

 
Boil the pasta in salted water.  Add the spinach, almonds, garlic, basil, and cheese to the food processor and grind into a nice mush.  Add in 3 T. olive oil, until it starts looking creamy, then transfer to the bottom of the pasta serving dish and season with pepper and salt (doesn't need much).  Reheat the chicken.  When the pasta is done cooking, drain and add to the sauce, along with the chicken.  Stir thoroughly and serve.

Carrot Cake

I made just a couple of minor adjustments to a carrot cake recipe that I found about a year ago.  I have it saved as "Earthbound Farms Carrot Cake."  My version added whole wheat flour and applesauce, which I find to be pretty standard substitutions when I bake things like this.  As you can see from the picture, I omitted all nuts, for the girls' preference.  I also can get by with 3/4 of the amount of frosting in this recipe, because the cake is just so tasty it doesn't really need the extra amount.  The girls and I get to gobble this one up, because, again, the cream cheese is "awful".  I really do make stuff that Travis likes, honestly! I'll start posting those soon. :)

Carrot Cake

1 1/3 C. flour

2/3 C. whole wheat flour

2 C. sugar

1 T. cinnamon (or a little less)

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

4 large eggs

½ C. oil

1 C. applesauce

2 tsp. vanilla

3 packed cups grated carrots (about 1 lb.)

1 C. chopped walnuts or pecans (opt.)

Frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

4 T. butter, softened

4 C. powdered sugar

1 T. vanilla

1 T. milk or water

2 C. chopped walnuts or pecans

Combine flour à baking powder.  Combine eggs, oil, vanilla, and add dry ingredients. Add the carrots and nuts, and stir to combine.

Evenly divide the batter between two 9-inch heavily buttered and floured cakepans.  Bake at 325° for 55-65 min, until a toothpick is clean and edges have pulled away from the side of the pans. Let the layers cool completely on wire racks, about 1 hour.

While cooling, make the frosting.  Cream together the butter and cream cheese, then incorporate the powdered sugar slowly and beat until fully incorporated and smooth, about 3 min.  Add vanilla and beat until just combined.  If too stiff, add 1 T. milk or water, and if too runny, add the last of the powdered sugar.

Remove cakes from pans and layer with frosting.  Press the nuts onto the side of the cake.  Cake can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 1 week.

Creamed Eggs on Toast

This is so simple and delicious, but it's definitely a lunch dish at our house because of dear hubby's avoidance of cream sauces.  This recipe makes enough for two adults, or one hungry mom and two kids. My mom used to make it for lunch when we would get home from preschool, so it's fun to make it with my own 4YO now!

Creamed Eggs on Toast

1 T. butter

1 T. flour

¾ to 1 C. milk, depending on how saucy you prefer

Salt and pepper

2 hard boiled eggs

4 pieces of toast

Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add the flour.  Cook until bubbly and roasted-smelling, but not browned. Add the milk, salt, and pepper, and bring to a boil.  Slice and chop the eggs, and add to the cream sauce.  Serve over toast.

I used 3/4 C. milk today and it was thick enough that Emily made hers into a very sloppy sandwich, but it's also good with more sauce.  It's also really good with peas, but I have one pea-hater so I just added them to my own plate today for lunch.  Delicious, and pretty too!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

I made this for my girls to eat with their aunt and uncle and cousin while I went out to have dinner with some girlfriends.  I think there are only 2 or 3 ingredients in the recipe that Travis will tolerate, so needless to say, we don't have this often.  It's a bit more work than I prefer to do for lunches, but when I do make it, the girls inhale it.  It's pretty rich, so I like to have something like pickles with it, or a bit of red wine vinegar sprinkled over top. 

Tuna Noodle Casserole – Kristin’s twist

2 T. butter

2 T. flour

1 C. milk

Salt & pepper

1 C. grated cheddar

¼ of a medium onion, grated

1 can cream of mushroom soup

¼ C. sour cream

3 C. noodles, partially cooked

1 7-oz. can tuna

2 hard boiled eggs

Potato chips

Melt butter in skillet, and sauté onions; add flour and let cook.  Add milk, and heat until thickened.  Season with salt and pepper; add cheese, soup and sour cream.  Add noodles, tuna, and chopped eggs, (½ C. frozen peas, optional) and mix well.  Add to casserole dish, and top with crushed potato chips.  Bake at 325° for 65 – 70 min. OR: 15 min in microwave w/o potato chips and 5 minutes in oven with.

Egg Nog Bread Pudding

Updated: Adding a picture I had taken of this. Also added some cinnamon and sugar to the eggnog version, as it needed a little more sweet after all.

I'm posting two recipes for the price of one, here.  One is my tried and true bread pudding recipe that I adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis (who didn't have any vanilla or cinnamon in hers - yeesh!) and made up my own sauce for.  But then I adapted it again upon finding a quart of egg nog in my fridge that wasn't going to get consumed before its expiration date, and I decided to make a limited-number-of-ingredients version.  I will confess that the latest version is still in the oven so I'm not exactly sure it's a winner yet, but, I'm feeling pretty clever so I'm posting it now.

I've found that freezer-burned hot dog buns, hamburger buns, or white sandwich bread work really nicely for this.  The buns, in particular, are nice because the crusts look really nice when it's all baked, but it will all be equally tasty for you.  I usually stuff a little more bread than one package, because I have heels and things laying around, and it's enough liquid to accommodate it. 

Enjoy!

Bread Pudding with Apples

Pudding:

1 loaf bread, cubed

1/3 C. raisins

8 eggs

2 ½ C. heavy cream

1 ½ C. milk

1 ¼ C. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp. cinnamon

Sauce:

4 large peeled, cored, sliced apples

¼ C. butter

¼ C. brown sugar

¼ C. sugar

¼ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

1 ½ C. apple juice

2 T. cornstarch

Fill a casserole dish with the cubed bread and raisins. Beat eggs, and add remaining ingredients. Pour over bread, making sure all the bread gets soaked.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  Bake at 350°F for 45 – 50 minutes.  For the sauce, brown the apples in the butter. Add sugars and spices.  Stir together the cold apple juice and cornstarch, add to apples and boil to thicken.

Egg Nog Bread Pudding

Pudding:

1 loaf bread, cubed

1/3 C. raisins

6 eggs
½ C. sugar
¼ tsp. cinnamon

1 quart of egg nog

Sauce:

1 can of apple pie filling

~½ C. apple juice

Fill a casserole dish with the cubed bread and raisins. Beat eggs, and add egg nog. Pour over bread, making sure all the bread gets soaked.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  Bake at 350°F for 45 – 50 minutes.  For the sauce, stir together the pie filling and apple juice to desired sauce consistency, and heat to serve.

Beer Can Chicken

This is a recipe that I came up with when making dinner for Travis's family.  His mom left me with a huge, organic chicken, and told me to get it in the oven somehow so we could eat it for lunch while she and others went out somewhere, I forget where.  So, I went a little nuts and came up with this, thanks to her poultry seasoning and chili powder being stored next to each other in her spice cabinet, and her willingness (or craziness) to let me loose in her kitchen.  Her reaction when she looked in the oven and saw the chicken sitting upright was one I won't forget!

Kristin’s Beer Can Chicken

1 whole chicken

1 can of beer (bud light, etc.)

1 Tbsp chili powder

2 tsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp poultry seasoning

Pour out 1/3 of beer. Mix together seasonings and rub on the chicken, and then place on beer can. Bake @ 400 for one hour, then 350 til done.

Welcome!

So, I guess I must think I'm pretty hot stuff, because I am feeling compelled to share some of my own recipes with the world.  While my food might not be as good or as consistently posted as that other Iowa Girl Kristin (as in, http://iowagirleats.com) it's still not too shabby.  Some nights, after dinner, I feel like I've come across something that's just too good to not share.  So, here you go, world!