Beans and Rice

This recipe joined the collection because Shad served his mission in Puerto Rico, where rice and beans are a staple.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 can (15.5 ounces) small red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
4-6 cups hot, cooked white rice

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook 5 minutes, stirring often. Stir in 3/4 cup water, tomato sauce, and oregano. Bring to a boil and stir in beans. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve beans over rice.

Chicken Cream Cheese Soup

1 lb chicken (breasts or combination)

3-4 bouillon cubes

1 onion, diced

2-3 stalks celery, diced

1-2 Tbsp butter

2 handfuls baby carrots (about 2 cups sliced small)

4-5 potatoes/sweet potatoes, diced small

1 c milk

1/4 c flour

8 oz package cream cheese

1. Put chicken in pot and cover with water; boil until cooked. Take chicken out of water but keep the broth. When chicken is cool, shred.

2. Saute onion and celery in butter. Put onion in pot and add carrots and potatoes. Add 3-4 cups of broth or enough to cover vegetables. Add bouillon cubes or soup base for flavor. Bring to a boil and simmer until veggies are tender.

3. Add shredded chicken. Mix flour with milk and add to soup. Soften cream cheese in microwave then add to soup in little pieces and stir until melted. Season with salt and pepper.

Notes: I usually just use one, maybe two, chicken breasts.

If you're using sweet potatoes, remember that one sweet potato is equivalent to two or more white potatoes.

I'm making this tonight, and I needed 7 cups of water to cover all of the vegetables/potatoes. I used two sweet potatoes and two white potatoes. I should have only used one sweet potato!

Waffles

I got this recipe out of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

For our family I make a batch and a half, so I put the extra half ingredient measures in parentheses. I eyeball the 7/8 cup.

1 3/4 cups flour (+ 7/8 cup)

1 Tbsp. baking powder (+ 1 1/2 tsp.)

1/4 tsp. salt (+ 1/8 tsp.)

2 egg yolks (+ 1 egg yolk)

1 3/4 cups milk (7/8 cup)

1/2 cup oil (+1/4 cup)

2 egg whites (+1 egg white)

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl beat egg yolks slightly. Then add milk and oil.

Add milk mixture to flour mixture. Stir until just combined but still slightly lumpy.

Gently fold in egg whites. Do NOT overmix.

Hamburger Stroganoff

1 lb. hamburger

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup margarine

2 Tbsp. flour

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

4 oz. can mushrooms, drained (or 1 pkg. fresh mushrooms, sliced)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 soup can milk

1 1/2 cup sour cream

Cook and stir hamburger and onion in margarine until hamburger is light brown. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce heat, add soup and 1/2 soup can of milk. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream; heat through. Serve over hot noodles or rice.

Cranberry Pork Roast

Our ward is putting together a ward cookbook, and so I've decided to type up the recipes I'm using in my menu plan for the cookbook. I thought that since I was already typing them up, I could post them here. I'll do this a little at a time. The first item on my menu is a family favorite borrowed from Laurel Lloyd in another ward cookbook. Enjoy!

Cranberry Pork Roast

1 (2 1/2 to 3 lb.) boneless pork loin roast

1 (16 oz.) can jellied cranberry sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup cranberry juice

1 tsp. dry mustard

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

2 Tbsp. cornstarch

2 Tbsp. cold water

Salt to taste

In slow cooker, mash cranberry sauce; stir in sugar, juice, mustard, and cloves. Immerse roast in sauce (pour some on top if the roast isn't covered by sauce). Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours or until meat is tender. Remove roast and keep warm. Skim fat from juices; measure 2 cups, adding water if necessary, and pour into a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Combine the cornstarch and cold water to make a paste; stir into gravy. Cook and stir until thickened. Season with salt. Serve with sliced pork.

OK - here are my tips:

Sometimes I only use 1 lb. of pork or even pork chops.

I usually end up shredding the pork and mixing in some of the sauce.

I seldom have cranberry juice, so I use apple juice instead.

I never skim fat from the juices or measure how much there is. I just put a wire mesh strainer in the pot and pour all of the juices through that.

10-Week Dinner Plan

I recently came up with a dinner menu for 10 weeks, with no repeats (except for going out for pizza twice). Some people asked me to post the menu. This was the best I can do. If there are specific recipes you're interested in, let me know. I don't have the time (or the inclination) to post all of the recipes!

What I Want to Make for Dinner Tomorrow

While wasting time, I mean "doing research," I found this yummy-looking recipe. Since it calls for ground beef and tomato sauce, at least 2/5 of my family won't eat it, but I think I'm going to make it anyways!

I'll let you know how it tastes.

Bow Tie Lasagna

• 1 pound Ground Chuck
• 5 cups Bow Tie Noodles
• 3 cups Spaghetti Sauce (or Pizza Sauce, Whatever You Prefer)
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoons Garlic Powder
• 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning (or More, Make It To Your Taste)
• ½ cup Mozzarella Cheese
• ½ cup Sour Cream

Fry ground chuck in small pan. Meanwhile, cook noodles according to package directions.
After noodles are cooked, drain and drizzle with olive oil. Mix in your spaghetti sauce.
Add your fried hamburger, seasonings, cheese, and sour cream. Fold together and allow it all to combine and melt together, over low heat, for about 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Grateful Sunday

I'm grateful for finding a delicious, quick breadsticks recipe over at Chez Moi. It went perfectly with what would otherwise have been a rather boring dinner (leftovers). I'm also grateful because I LOVE Little Caesar's crazy bread and this recipe is as close as you can come to crazy bread without driving across town to Little Caesar's.

Here's the recipe, but do yourself a favor and go to Recipes Chez Moi for some other fabulous recipes.

1 1/4 c. warm water
1 T. yeast
2 T. sugar
1/2 t. salt
3 - 3 1/2 c. flour (I only used 2  3/4 cups)
1/4 c. melted butter
garlic salt/parmesan cheese

Proof the yeast. Mix sugar, salt, and 2 1/2 c. flour. Add yeast mixture and stir to form dough. Add more flour if needed -- it's better to be on the stickier side. Let dough rest 10 minutes.

Put half of melted butter in a jelly roll pan. Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape and then press into pan. Brush with remaining butter. Cut dough into long strips with a pizza cutter and then, depending on how many breadsticks you need, cut your strips into halves or thirds. Sprinkle with parmesan and garlic salt. Let rest another 10 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Scrumptious, but Sinful

This is what we had for dinner tonight:

Chicken Alfredo Pizza

Unfortunately, the pictures don't do it justice.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza
 
8 oz cream cheese (can use reduced fat)
1/4 c. Parmesan, grated
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. milk
garlic to taste
 
Toppings:
chicken, grilled and cubed (one chicken breast works for us)
feta cheese, crumbled (I skip this, as I don't like feta)
mozzarella cheese, shredded (I use 2 cups)
green onion, sliced

bacon (optional, but delicious!)
pizza crust (I make a homemade pizza crust, bake it for 10 to 12 minutes, or you can buy a Boboli pizza crust)
 
Mix cream cheese, Parmesan, butter, milk, and garlic in saucepan.  Cook and stir on medium heat until cheese is melted and smooth.  Spread alfredo sauce on pizza crust.  Top with chicken, feta, mozzarella, and onion (and bacon if you don't care about your arteries).  Bake at 375 until cheese is melted and crust is browned (about 7 - 9 minutes).

Emily thought we should have this once a week, but my waistline can't handle that!

Thanks Jessica for the awesome recipe!

Mother Daughter Fashion Show

For Activity Days yesterday (activities for girls age 8-11 at church) there was a Mother Daughter Fashion Show. Each girl drew a "style" out of a hat. Emily picked out Egyptian Style, which is so perfect for Emily - she loves Egyptian anything!

My sister and her husband toured Egypt about a year ago and she lent me some Egyptian clothes to wear. (Unfortunately I didn't realize the red scarf was actually a head scarf until after we had taken pictures together.)

At Girls Camp this year, each ward was assigned a country. (Our ward was Canada.) A friend was in charge of a ward who was assigned Egypt. She lent me some of their "gear" for Emily to wear. So I dressed as a "modern" Egyptian and Emily represented "ancient" Egypt with her costume.

As part of the fashion show, we also were supposed to bring a potluck dish to represent our "style."   (One girl got baby style; they brought mashed potatoes as their dish - that cracked me up and the mashed potatoes were super yummy!)

I did a google search and found this recipe. It turned out really well (just enough left-overs for Shad to have a taste). I will actually make this again for my family.

Egyptian Lahma Bil Basal (Beef in Rich Onion Sauce)

1 lb stewing beef (you can cut each piece into smaller pieces if you want - I did)

4 onions (sliced super thin - very important!)

2 chicken bouillon cubes

1 bay leaf

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp vegetable oil (NOT olive oil)

water

salt & pepper

1. Wash the meat well. Put into a saucepan with butter and oil. Cook until all beef is lightly browned.
   
2. Add all sliced onions, bouillon cubes, bay leaf, and salt & pepper. Stir and cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes.
3. Add water, about a cup. Turn to low, cover and cook for 2 hours or more.
4. Check during cooking, add more water if too dry. (But onions should give enough liquid with the initial water you added.)
5. When finished you should have super tender beef with a thick oniony sauce. The onions will have cooked down to a sauce. I had to add a Tbsp of cornstarch mixed into a Tbsp of cold water to get the sauce to thicken up.
6. Serve with pasta or rice.
   

It was a fun evening!

Munchin' Monday

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

1 cup margarine (2 sticks)

2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups quick oats

14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

12 oz. pkg chocolate chips (2 cups)

1/4 cup margarine

2 teaspoon vanilla

For cookie dough – cream margarine and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients.

On stove, melt sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and margarine until combined. Take off heat and stir in vanilla.


Put 2/3 of dough into a greased 9 x 13 pan; lightly press into pan.

Spread chocolate mixture on top of cookie dough mixture.

Drop remaining dough by spoonfuls or make patties in hands to drop on top.

Bake 350 for 25-30 minutes.

In my opinion, these taste even better the next day. Enjoy!

Back in the Land of the Living

It took a week, but I'm back. I had enough strength to shower AND go to the grocery store today! 

Unfortunately, now that I'm back on my feet, my kids have been knocked off of theirs. Emily woke up at 6:00 a.m. and threw up. Peter told us his stomach hurt. I made him some Eggo's for breakfast - he refused to eat them. At that point I knew he was sick - he has NEVER said no to waffles before!

I'll have to post a catch-up post later. I have to get Laura's choice for dinner - California Pizza - out of the oven. It's a Pampered Chef recipe and its real name is Tomato Basil Pizza. I made it once when Shad's step-sister Camille was visiting us from California. She loved it so much that she took the recipe home with her. Ever since then, Emily has called it California Pizza - because her aunt who lives in California makes it. I don't know why Camille gets credit, but there's no understanding a child's logic.

California Pizza

pizza dough (10 oz refrigerated dough, or homemade)

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 teaspoon dried basil

1 garlic clove, pressed

2/3 cup mayonnaise

3 - 4 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced*

Roll out pizza dough on rectangle baking stone (or greased cookie sheet) to within 1-inch of edge of pan. Sprinkle dough with 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. In bowl, combine 1 cup mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, basil, garlic, and mayo. Arrange tomato slices in a single layer over mozzarella cheese on crust. Spread cheese/mayo mixture over tomatoes. Bake at 375 for 15-20 mins or until top is golden brown and bubbly.

*My kids don't like the tomatoes so I only use 2 tomatoes to cover half of the pizza. I put the cheese mixture over the dough that doesn't have tomatoes as well.

This is how it will look if you only cover half of the pizza with tomatoes.

Laura absolutely loves to cook! Today she told me that she needs this "skill" because when she grows up she's going to be "a big cooker."

Here's my favorite Thick Crust Pizza Dough recipe (Thanks Leah!):

1 1/3 cups warm water
4 teaspoons sugar
1 Tbsp yeast
3 - 4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp shortening
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
1/2 teaspoon oregano (optional)

Mix water, sugar and yeast. Let sit until it begins to foam. Add flour and other ingredients. Knead. Let rise till double. Roll out on pizza stone (or greased pan.) Let rise for 5-10 mins., then cover with toppings. (For normal pizza, bake at 425 for 18-20 mins.)

Laura is choosing to watch Pinocchio tonight. Her brother and sister are doing a version of Pinocchio as a class play and so she wanted to see the movie.

To Please My Oldest and Sweetest Daughter

Emily keeps reminding me that I have not posted information about the past TWO Kids' Choice Nights. (She also changed the title of this post. Originally it just said "To Please My Oldest.") So, to please her, here is an update.

Two Fridays ago, it was Laura's choice night. Because Shad and I would be on our 24-hour date, I made her meal ahead of time. Laura chose egg salad (funny choice for a 4-year old, in my opinion). Laura likes to eat her egg salad with a fork (so does Peter), but I think it belongs on bread. So Thursday night I made homemade bread. My mom watched the kids Friday night, so she got to feed them the egg salad, homemade bread, Pringles (regular flavor!), and baby carrots.

Laura chose Disney's live-action version of 101 Dalmatians
(which is really cute).

Emily made homemade caramel popcorn to eat while they watched the movie.

This caramel popcorn recipe is so easy, I let my 10-year old make it. And it's perfect for those of us who don't actually own an air popper. That's right - I don't have an air popper and I still consider myself civilized!

Caramel Microwave Popcorn

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup marshmallows (any size)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 bag microwave popcorn

Pop the bag of popcorn in the microwave. In small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar, then add marshmallows. When mixture is smooth, pour the popcorn into a bowl and pour the caramel over the popcorn. Stir and serve. YUMMY!!!


Last Friday was Emily's Choice Night. Peter was off at a birthday party and my mom was in Houston visiting my 2 1/2 month-old niece, so it was just me and the girls. Emily chose Quesadillas with chicken. Nothing fancy, just chop up a grilled chicken breast (that had been marinated in Italian dressing) and spread it on a tortilla with a smidge of salsa and lots of cheese. Heat it in a frying pan and when the cheese is all melted, slide it onto your plate. Add a dollop of sour cream and you're done.

Emily chose The Empire Strikes Back as her movie.

Laura was fine with the movie for a while, but half way through she decided she'd had enough and she wanted to play Chutes and Ladders.


So, I played the game with Laura to keep her happy while Emily enjoyed her movie. I have to say that the game was very frustrating. We kept landing on the chutes and having to slide further away from the end space on the board. I think it took us 20 minutes to get past the bottom half of the board. It didn't help that Laura kept running back and forth between the movie and the game.

And now that I'm all caught up, I'm off to try and finish Angle of Repose for Book Club on Wednesday.

** A disclaimer: the food photos are from flickr.com I wasn't here egg salad Friday and was lazy quesadilla Friday, but I know people prefer posts with photos so I threw some in to please everybody. My goodness - I do seem to have a thing about pleasing people! **

Family Fun

Friday was Shad's birthday, but he had to work so we went ahead with our regular Kids' Choice Night. This Friday was Laura's night. She picked one of her usual meals - tacos. (Her other regular choice is chicken nuggets and mac and cheese.) I decided to try a new recipe since Laura hadn't chosen something new. Usually we have grilled chicken in our tacos, but I had received a recipe for Creamy Chicken Soft Tacos from one of the sisters I work with in the Relief Society presidency.

Here's how it turned out

Well, you really can't see the meat because Shad buried his with toppings, but it was delicious - as you can tell from everyone's "ooh" and "aahh" expressions. (Or course Emily, Shad and I were the only ones who tried the chicken. Laura's idea of a taco is a flour tortilla slathered with sour cream, sprinkled with shredded cheddar cheese and folded in half.)

Shad took his lunch break early so that he could eat dinner with us. The chicken smelled so good while it cooked that he just had to have some!

Here's the recipe:

Creamy Chicken Soft Tacos

4 frozen boneless, skinless, chicken breasts

16 oz. jar salsa

1 C. sour cream

tortillas

Place Chicken in slow cooker. Pour salsa over the top. Cover and cook on high 4-8hrs. low 10-12hrs.

During last hour shred chicken by pulling apart with two forks, then add sour cream. 

Fold Chicken mix inside warm tortillas with lettuce and grated cheese.

(Since only half of my family will eat the meat, I cut the recipe in half and it gave us enough meat for 8 tacos.)

Saturday I took the kids to a Wool Festival at the Botanical Gardens' Heritage Farm. Emily and Peter are learning about textiles at school and their teacher told us about this event. Shad had a church meeting to go to, so it was just Mom and the kids. We saw sheep, cows, huge work horses, a goat, and some ducks. We got to touch wool from different animals - sheep, musk oxen, alpacas (llamas - we actually have several llama wool blankets - very warm), angora (rabbits), etc.  

Then we saw demonstrations where they carded (combed) the wool, spun it into thread,

dyed it with natural dyes (walnut shells, onion skins, dried marigolds), and wove the wool thread into hats, tapestries, and sweaters.  

The kids got to take home some wool from a sheep and some little weaving boards to weave their own ... something. Emily is weaving a scarf for her American Girl doll, Nikki.

The Wool Festival was fun, but what the kids really enjoyed was taking each others' pictures.

Peter took this one of Laura.

Laura took this one of Peter.  You can see Emily and I in the background.

By far, Peter and Emily's favorite part was the new Japanese Garden. It was beautiful and peaceful. Emily kept saying she would move to Japan if she could have a garden like this. 

Laura, however, did not enjoy this part of our outing. She got a splinter in one of her fingers from touching a fence post. She screamed and cried while we walked around the Japanese garden, while we returned to the car, and while we drove home. Shad is the one who takes out splinters in our family and she wanted her Daddy! Unfortunately, Daddy was still at his church meeting and so I got to hold the hysterical child and pull out the darned splinter. 

Chocolate Appreciation Night

Personally, I think the government should set aside one day a month as Chocolate Appreciation Day. Since that is not going to happen, I'll just have to enjoy our Relief Society Chocolate Appreciation Night this evening.

Here's what I made:

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Toffee Trifle

3 cups milk
2 package (4 serving size) instant chocolate pudding
1 8 oz. tub Cool Whip, defrosted
1 (12 oz.) package pound cake loaf, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup chocolate syrup
4 (1.4 oz) bars chocolate-covered English toffee (like Heath), chopped

Pour milk into large bowl. Add pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Gently fold in 2 cups of the Cool Whip. Arrange 1/2 of the cake cubes in 3 1/2 qt. serving bowl. Drizzle with 1/4 cup chocolate syrup. Layer with 1/2 of the chopped candy bars and 1/2 of the pudding mix. Repeat layers ending with pudding mixture. Refrigerate 1 hour or until ready to serve. Garnish with remaining Cool Whip. Sprinkle with additional chopped candy bars, if desired. Refrigerate leftovers.