My 2 Recipes – Now it’s Your Turn!
I am always curious about what other people cook for their families. Mostly just because it gives me really good ideas. I love to try new recipes, too.
So I want to play a little game… and I hope you’ll play along!
I want to hear about-
(1) the dinner that you cook most often for your family (and if you have a recipe, please share it!), and
(2) the “new” recipe you tried most recently (this can be anything – not just a meal).
So here are my two:
The dinner I make most often is “Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake”. I make it because it is super-simple to prepare and everyone in my family likes it. I LOVE a night with no complaints!
Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 cup uncooked minute rice
1 cup condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup water
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
black pepper
paprika
Mix the rice, soup, water and cheese in a casserole dish. Place the chicken on top. Sprinkle with black pepper and paprika to taste. Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes or until chicken is done. Mix rice before serving.
The most recent “new” recipe I tried was yesterday for our MOPS meeting – it’s a recipe I got recently from a friend from grad school. I already got a couple of requests to share the recipe, so I guess it’s a winner!
Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Frosting
Cookie Ingredients:
2/3 c granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 c butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c canned pumpkin
2 eggs
2 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
Frosting Ingredients:
3 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 to 4 T milk
1/3 c butter (do not use margarine)
Heat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, 3/4 c butter (or margarine) and 1 tsp vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Beat in pumpkin and eggs until well mixed. On low speed, beat in flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheet in heaping tablespoonfuls. Bake 10 to 12 min until almost no indentation remains when touched in the center. Immediate remove cookies from sheet and place on cooling rack. Cool completely (about 45 min). In medium bowl, place powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 3 tablespoons of milk. In 1-quart saucepan, heat 1/3 cup butter over medium heat, stirring constantly until light brown. Pour butter over the powder sugar mixture and beat on low speed about 1 min. Add remaining milk if necessary to make frosting creamy and spreadable. Generously frost cookies.
Hope you enjoy these recipes! And I can’t wait to hear yours! You can either put them in your comment or put them on your own blog and leave me a link! Thanks!
Back to School Treats
Back to School this week… and we pretty much celebrate everything around here with food. Check it out…
Sugar cookie pencils! This might become a tradition…
TTAH Tuesday – Try This Yumminess
OK, who needs chocolate?
(I do.)
During your coffee break today, try this. (you do take a coffee break, don’t you?)
Chocolate Cake in a Mug
4T flour
4T sugar
2T cocoa
1 egg
3 T milk
3 T oil
3 T chocolate chips
splash of vanilla extract
Mix dry ingredients in a large (as big as you can find!), microwave-safe mug. Add egg and mix. Add milk and oil and mix until blended. Add chocolate chips and vanilla, and, you guessed it, mix again.
Cook in microwave for about 2 1/2 minutes.
(If you’re having a really bad day, put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.)
Enjoy!
TTAH Tuesday – leftover buns
Somehow we always have leftover buns after we have hamburgers or hotdogs. I used to put them back into the package, throw them in the fridge, thinking I’d use them for sandwiches or something. I never did. I’d usually end up throwing them out.
That’s when I had an “aha” moment.
I now use leftover buns for homemade garlic “bread” with pasta. Just slather some butter & garlic powder on them, throw them in the oven at about 400 degrees for a little while (watch them carefully!**)… and they will toast up beautifully.
Aha – no more wasting buns, and possibly saving money on not buying garlic bread or something else. Yay! Try it next time you have leftover buns!!
** funny story… I have been known to make very well done (ok, burned) garlic bread. Last night I made some garlic bread out of leftover buns, and when Dave got home he asked the kids what was for dinner. One of them told him – “spaghetti and garlic bread. and it’s not even burned.” Haa.
TTAH Tuesday – Three Random Kitchen Tips
Hi everyone! The sun is shining and God is good!
Here are three random kitchen tips for you today. You may already know them, but if at least one is new to you, I promise you’ll be happy to have heard it!
- I was always frustrated by the fact that we could never eat all the bananas before they got too ripe. (I despise brownish bananas – I’d prefer to eat them slightly green!) But then my boss at the time told me that when they get too ripe, to just throw them in the freezer and then they can be used later for banana bread. I was so psyched – no more wasting bananas, and if I need to bake something for a meeting or a friend, I almost always have some frozen bananas to use! When they thaw, they are perfect for recipes that call for mashed bananas!
- Use a plastic knife to cut brownies. (I will admit I just learned this one last week). The knife just slides through the brownies cleanly without messing them up! So cool!
- Kids want to make cookies but you don’t really feel like standing in the kitchen for an hour plopping dough on cookie sheets and waiting for them to bake?? This is perfect for you, then. Make bar cookies. Use the same recipe, but instead of making individual cookies, put the dough in a 13 x 9 greased baking pan. Cook at the same temperature but cook longer… up to twice or even possibly three times the duration of the normal recipe (depends on the recipe – you’ll have to watch them closely the first time to make sure you don’t burn them). I love doing this because I don’t mind mixing up the cookies but baking all of them can sometimes be a drag! This way the kids are happy and so am I!
Got any busy mom kitchen tips you’d like to share?? Leave ‘em in the comments section!
TTAH Tuesday – Some Yummy Recipes
Just found this website and I’m loving it.
My sister made the Layered Strawberry Cheesecake last week and it was delicious. She’s the one who told me about the Kraft Food & Family magazine. I didn’t want to subscribe to it, but fortunately for me, they have an on-line version.
Here’s the link…
http://www.kraftfoods.com/foodandfamily/home?cm_sp=CRM-_-DigiMag-_-Homepage#/home
The website is really slick and it has lots of beautiful photos of the prepared recipes. From perusing the recipes for a little while, they seem to be pretty family-friendly and not too complicated. (yay for me! and you!)
Hope you enjoy it!
Puppy Cupcakes
Three breeds of pupcakes.
The favorite breed, a.k.a., "Molly"
For the girls’ birthdays (8th and 2nd), we had a combined party at the end of February. The party was puppy-themed and I experimented with decorating these cupcakes to go with the theme. I’ve been meaning to post these photos for a while but I kept forgetting.
It really was much easier than it looks. I used canned frosting and baggies with the corners cut off (no icing bags or tips required here!) to get all of these looks and I think they turned out just fine. I also used large marshmallows, jellybeans, mini m&ms, tootsie rolls, and starbursts to make the various ears, noses, tongues, and eyes.
I got some ideas from the web – if you’re interested in making these or other animals just google it and there are all sorts of photos & tips available.
Who knows what you could make with an adventurous spirit and a little experimentation!
TTAH Tuesday – Preparing for Easter
What a glorious day Easter is! To think that God himself became a man… and then died a horrible death to pay for my sin. But Easter is that glorious day to celebrate the fact that Jesus, although He died, was raised from the dead. The Living God.
This tip is for those of you who, like me, want to give their children a better perspective on Easter – the truth – rather than just visions of baskets, bunnies, eggs, and candy.
Try these “Resurrection Rolls”…
1 package crescent rolls
8 large marshmallows
melted butter
sugar and cinnamon mix
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Give each child a triangle of crescent roll dough. This represents the cloth that Jesus was wrapped in. Give each child a marshmallow. This represents Jesus. Dip the marshmallow in the melted butter, which represents the embalming oil. Next, dip the marshmallow into the sugar and cinnamon mixture. This represents the spices used to anoint Jesus’ body. Tightly wrap the marshmallow inside the roll and be sure to seal it shut so that there are no openings. This represents the wrapping of Jesus’ body for burial after His death. Place rolls on an ungreased cookie sheet and put into the oven. The oven represents the tomb. Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes (pretend it’s been three days!).
Remove the rolls from the oven and allow them to cool slightly. Let the children open their rolls (the burial cloth) and discover that Jesus is no longer there! He is risen! You can let the children know that the sweet taste is a reminder of His sweet sacrifice for us!
Happy Easter!
TTAH Tuesday – it’s what’s for lunch
greek pita pizza
I know it’s not Tuesday anymore. Really I do. But having the kids home from school this week… well, let’s just say I’m a little off. I hope you’ll forgive me.
If you like greek stuff – feta cheese, kalamata olives, etc. – then try this pita pizza at home. YUMMY!
Spread some sour cream on a pita, then sprinkle on top some red onion, kalamata olives, diced tomatoes, feta cheese, and mozzarella cheese. Place it under the broiler for long enough to warm it up and melt the mozzarella. Then get ready to enjoy.
**Just a note: My kids won’t eat this. But it’s a delicious treat for mommy every once in a while!!**
TTAH Tuesday – Thanksgiving Hits
Okay, I’m finally back to blogging after all the excitement of Thanksgiving. The family all came here – so last week was a flurry of cleaning and cooking. And just in case you were wondering, “Thanksgiving Hits” refers to really great food, not fist fights at the dinner table (or anywhere else)!
I only host Thanksgiving about once every three years or so. Not really enough to get good at it. The one thing I’ve never perfected (until this year!) is the stuffing. Too soggy, not spicy enough, whatever.
I think I’ve told you before that I’m a tried and true recipe follower. In the past, this was my mistake with my stuffing. I tried to do what my mom and sister do – just wing it with minimal guidelines- and the results were less than fabulous. So this year I stuck to my strengths – following a recipe. And the stuffing was a hit. So just in case any of you are also stuffing-challenged, I thought I’d share the recipe. I’m also including a recipe for candied yams, which are to die for. Thanksgiving is not the same without them. So try these recipes and let me know what you think! I hope you’ll enjoy them!
Walnut Mushroom Stuffing
1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
3/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons sage
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground thyme
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 teaspoon pepper
12 cups cubed day-old bread
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 – 1 cup chicken broth
Saute mushrooms and onion in butter until tender. Stir in the sage, salt, thyme, marjoram, and pepper. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the bread cubes, walnuts, and enough broth to reach desired moistness. (If you’re stuffing a turkey, use less broth!!!) Toss to coat. Spoon into a greased 2-qt. baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 10-15 minutes longer or until lightly browned.
** note that I made a double batch for a 21 pound turkey and it still wasn’t quite enough – we could have used more.
Candied Yams
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cooked yams
Place first four ingredients in an electric skillet and cook until bubbly. Add yams and heat through.
