Hummus!

Good news everyone! I got the recipe from my nutrition teacher for her hummus, which I have been craving lately. Here is the recipe, courtesy of Janet Anderson.

2 16-oz cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/3 c. tahini
1 tsp salt
Juice of 1 lemon
¼ tsp cayenne pepper, ground
¼ tsp cumin, ground
¼ tsp black pepper, ground
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 handful parsley
¾ green onions, cut into 1” pieces
Water as needed (about 1/3 cup)

Place all ingredients in food processor or blender. Add water as needed to form a smooth paste. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Chocolate Cookies

These cookies are from Bon Appetit Magazine. They are my favorite chocolate cookies so far. They have a little almond extract and it gives them a wonderful flavor, different than most other chocolate cookies. Plus they are soft all the time, even after being pulled right out of the fridge. We like to use these as sandwich cookies with frosting in the middle, but I think they would be great alone, maybe with some white chocolate chips added in with the semi-sweet chips.

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or 1 cup semi sweet, 1 cup white)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Beat butter until fluffy. Beat in both sugars, then eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in extracts then dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing dough 2 to 3 inches apart. Bake 2 sheets together for 5 minutes, then switch sheets and cook for another 5 minutes. I cook these for exactly 10 minutes switching the sheets and they are perfect every time.

I made these for Ryan's work party last night and used them as sandwich cookies. For frosting I used:

1/4 cup butter
4 oz. cream cheese
about 3 cups powdered sugar (sorry, I didnt measure, I just used all that was in my container and dumped it in)
vanilla
milk
beat until smooth and blended, then add 1 jar marshmallow cream. I let the cookies cool then spread the frosting and put the sandwiches in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Leave any extra cookies in the fridge. Adios!

My New Favorite Burritos

So I decided that I better contribute something to this blog since I was the only one who hasn't posted anything. I haven't really made anything spectacular lately, or even really exciting enough to post, plus I don't have a camera so I can't post pictures. However, we did have burritos the other night and I am kind of obsessed with them. They were very delicious, nutritious, easy, and equally fabulous with meat or without (Im kind of into being vegetarian right now). I used some ideas from other people, and put in my own little changes, so here they are!

Cilantro Lime Rice
1 can chicken broth
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsn lime juice (plus a little more cause I like it stronger)
1 tsp grated lime zest
2 tsp sugar
2 Tbsn chopped fresh cilantro
dash of minced garlic (or however much you want)
1 cup uncooked white rice

Bring water, chicken broth, and lime juice to a boil. Add rice and garlic and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until rice is soft and the water is absorbed. Stir in lime zest, sugar, and cilantro.

Black Beans and Corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 to 1 full can of corn (I only used a half can and I thought it was perfect, but full would be fine too I think)
1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce plus enough water added to equal 1 1/4 cups
cumin
chile powder
garlic salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together. This needs to be simmered for a little bit because it is a little runny. I let it cook down for probably 10 minutes and it was perfect.

Burritos:
Tortilla shells of your choice
Cilantro lime rice
Black beans and corn
Any shredded beef, pork, or chicken, if desired (we used Mom's mexican meat mix, cause we had some in the freezer and it was delicious)
Avocado cut into chunks (we opted to use chunks instead of guac, and I strongly recommend it; it was great)
Fresh tomatos
Sour cream
Cheese
Whatever else you want-olives, lettuce, salsa... I didn't use these things, but it would probably be good. I also am thinking about adding some mild (green) enchilada sauce. I think it would be great.

Anyway, these were way easy and very affordable, and they were very fresh and light. You should try them! And if not I will make them as one of our Christmas meals. Ciao!

Sweet Potato Bake

This was a huge hit at our Thanksgiving dinner. Mike, who can't stand sweet potatoes accually had seconds, and Lynzee couldn't stop eating them, she actually licked the pan clean. I was pretty impressed myself. I got the original recipie from Paula Deen's web site and made a couple of changes.

Ingredients:

3 C mashed sweet potatoes

1 C white sugar

1/3 C butter, melted

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 C half and half

pinch of salt

Topping:

1 C brown sugar

3 Tbsp butter, chilled

1/3 C all-purpose flour

1 C pecans chopped

1/2 C coconut

Mix together with a pastry cutter or fork and sprinkle on top of the casserole. I actually 1 1/2 this part cause I love the topping.

Preheat oven to 325. Mix all the ingredients together except for the cream. Beat together with a mixer (I just used my hand mixer) until smooth. Add cream, mix well. Pour into a greased casserole dish, add topping. Bake for 25-30 min.

Baked Pesto Alfredo Pasta

Last night I was trying to be creative and use up some of the things I had in the fridge. I am not one who loves pasta, but it is what I ended up making and my family really liked the end result.

Low-fat Alfredo Sauce:

2 C Low fat Milk

1/3 C - 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp Flour

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp Butter

Fresh Garlic

1 C Grated Parmesan Cheese

Put milk, cream cheese, flour and salt in blender, process until smooth, set aside.

Melt butter in sauce pan, add garlic cook for a min. Don't burn garlic just cook raw taste out. Add milk mixture to pan bring to a simmer (3-4 minutes). Keep stirring until mixture thickens up then remove the pan from heat - add cheese, stir and cover, let sit for 10 minutes before using.

Pasta of your choice

Cooked chicken breasts (I only had one and I cut it up small it went really far)

Button mushrooms - quartered

Artichokes - chopped (some of mine were marinated some were not)

Tomato - diced

1/2 C - 3/4 C pesto

1 cup shredded cheese (I used the italian mix - the low fat Kraft kind)

I just used the things that I had in the fridge you could use anything that you had or your family would like.

Preheat oven to 350. Cook pasta a little less than al dente, while pasta is cooking cut up veggies of choice. Drain pasta. Place in a greased 9x13 pan put chicken and veggies on top of pasta. Pour alfredo sauce on top and put pesto on top of that. Mix together, top with cheese. Cook for 20 - 25 min or until hot and bubbly.

Yummy Biscuits

I found this biscuit recipie in a magazine it is from the ever so wonderful Alton Brown. I think that they turned out really good. I love biscuits and I love to make them from scratch. I think that they taste better and they aren't hard at all. I also made a spinach tomato fritata. It was pretty good too. I will include that recipie as well.

I do have to say that I haven't mastered the art of food photography. It is kinda hard and I don't have the best camera. Still, I am learning. Don't judge the food by the picture I guess is what I am saying.

Biscuit Ingredients:

2 C all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp soda
3/4 tsp salt (I do recommend kosher salt, I love it)
3 TBSP butter, chilled
1/4 C shortening, chilled
1 C buttermilk

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

In a large mixing bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients. Using your fingers or a pastry blender cut the butter and shortening into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour in the buttermilk. Stir until the dough just comes together. Knead until all the flour has been mixed in.

Put the dough on a slightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth, but don't overwork it. Press the dough into a 3/4 inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with round cutter. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until they are tall and light gold on top.


Fritata Ingredients:

8 Large eggs
3 TBSP milk (I will be honest I used half and half today that needed to be used up)
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil (if I would have had it, I would have used fresh)
1/2 C fresh spinach, cut up
1 tomato, diced
1 C cheese, grated (I used part med cheddar and part Monterey Jack)

Crack eggs in a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together. Add milk, salt and pepper, basil, and whisk together. Add remaining ingredients. Mix together.

Grease a 9-inch (or so) skillet and let it heat up. Pour egg mixture in pan. Let sit and start to cook. Using a spatula scrape the egg mixture from the outside in letting the uncooked eggs run down past the eggs that have been already cooked. You don't want it to resemble scramble eggs, you want it to stay together. When the eggs look mostly done sprinkle a little more cheese on top and stick in oven (350 degrees) to melt cheese and cook any eggs on top that may not be all the way set. 5-10 min.

You can serve it by slicing it like a pie. Of course my girls like ketchup with theirs, Mike and I ate ours with a slice of avacado. Salsa would be good too.

Toffee Apple Dip

TOFFEE APPLE DIP

Mix the following together & serve with apple slices:

8 oz. cream cheese

½ c. brown sugar

¼ c. white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pkg. Skor toffee bits

picture and recipe courtesy of Becky Higgins

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

I love Chicken Cordon Bleu, but never make it... Why? Because the only time that I remember trying was when we were in Vacaville and Mom wanted to do it for Christmas dinner. For some reason remember it being a little more ambitious than what I want to do for an evening dinner on a weeknight. I also must remember that I was only 9, maybe 10.

I found this recipie on another food blog I can't remember which one cause I like to look at so many, but I thought I would give it a try. I changed it a bit and thought that it turned out pretty good.

4 Chicken Breasts

4 Slices of Deli Ham

4 Slices of Swiss cheese

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1/2 -1 C canned milk (depending on how thick you want the gravy)

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 - 1/2 tsp dried thyme

couple grinds of pepper (sorry, you guys know how I measure)

1 1/2 C bread crumbs

1/4 C melted butter

Place chicken breasts in a baking pan, season with salt and pepper. Put a slice of ham on the top of each chicken breast then top the ham with a piece of swiss cheese. Mix soup with the canned milk (you could use regular milk too), lemon juice, thyme, and pepper and pour over the chicken breasts. Mix the melted butter with the bread crumbs, I also seasoned them caused I used unseasoned bread crumbs, and spread over the top of the soup mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees covered for 30 min then uncover and bake another 15 min.

Oatmeal Pancakes with Buttermilk syrup

I got this recipe from Lexi and it is delicious. I like to serve it with bananas or strawberries. Make sure you boil the syrup long enough or it will be grainy. I love these pancakes!

Oatmeal Pancakes:

2 c oatmeal
2 c buttermilk
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg beaten lightly
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 to 1 c milk
1/2 c flour
1/4 c butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp cinnamon

Combine oatmeal and buttermilk and refrigerate overnight.
Combine remaining ingredients except for milk, then add to desired consistency. Cook on greased griddle and serve with buttermilk syrup.

Buttermilk Syrup:

2 c sugar
1/2 c buttermilk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c butter

Melt butter and add sugar, buttermilk, and soda. Boil one minute, then remove from heat and add vanilla.

Amy's Idea

Amy had the great idea of doing a recipe blog instead of doing a cookbook. I took it upon myself to get the blog started and now it is up to everyone to keep it going! It is a fun and easy way to share ideas....and I think it would be great to share any fun crafty idea too. What do you guys think? I must insist that we all put pictures with the recipes we share that way we can get a look at what the final product looked like.

I love it so lets get cooking!