Friday, August 12, 2011

Molasses Crinkle Cookies

Husband loves *loves* loves these cookies.  Constantly I'm asked to bake them.  They helped him get an A in his class the other day!

Molasses Crinkle Cookies

Mix together:
1/2 c oil
1/4 c shortening
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c molasses
1 egg

Sift Together:
2 1/4 c flour
2 tsp soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ginger

Slowly mix in the sifted dry mixture in with the wet.  
Chill for several hours
Roll dough into walnut sized balls
Dip in Granulated sugar
Place on cookie sheet and drop one drop of water onto raw dough.  

Bake at 375* for 8 minutes.  leave on cookie sheet for 1 minute.  Remove and cool and then enjoy cookie with crisp cold milk. 

If you wish to have a fluffier cookie, use 3/4 c shortening instead of oil and shortening mix.  

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Dijon Honey Mustard Chicken

So, It's been ages since I've posted anything- and the reason being that I haven't been cooking home at much- With Husband's work schedule being beyond crummy this semester, it means I don't have any motivation to cook anything- let alone try something new.

-BUT-

Here goes

4 Chicken Breast Halves
1/3 c Dijon Mustard
1/2 c Honey
1/4 c Melted Butter
Ground Pepper to taste

Mix Dijon Mustard, Honey and melted butter until it's all mixed together.  Add Ground Pepper to taste.

Pound the chicken breast halves just a tiny bit- enough to even out the thicker part to match the thinner part.  Place chicken single layer in a greased 9x13 pan- we greased it with a tiny bit of Olive Oil. Cover the chicken with the Dijon Mustard sauce.

Bake in oven at 375* for 25 minutes

Enjoy!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Crock Pot Stroganoff

OK-

So I had a huge *HUGE* craving for this stuffs- only problem is I had a) never made it, and b) didn't have a lot of time *after* work to cook it... so I Googled a recipe to give me a jump start of an idea of what I wanted.

I cooked this in my little 2 qt crock pot:

Ingredients:

1 lb beef stew chunks
1 small can beef broth
1 small can Cream of Mushroom soup
3 Heaping TBS Sour Cream
2 cups of thickly sliced mushrooms
3 TBS whiskey (not needed, but we had it on hand- DIVINE!)
1/3 small onion- thickly sliced
1/2 brick of cream cheese
1/2 cube butter
Celery Salt
Red Pepper Flakes
Ground Pepper
Salt

Put the beef chunks in the bottom of the pot, salt and pepper to "taste", 1/2 can of broth, 2 TBS whiskey in the crock pot.  While that is starting to warm up, combine the Mushroom soup, cream cheese, butter, stirring them together.  While stirring this, add the 1 TBS whiskey, 1 TBS (ish) red pepper flakes, and a light dusting of celery salt- mixing well.  When done, pour over the beef chunks.

Slice the fresh mushrooms thickly (so they don't disappear completely) and slice the onion just as thick. Put on top of soup type mixture.  Add remaining broth.

Let it cook on high for 6 hours.
** ADD SOUR CREAM**

The broth, at first, will be really runny. However, just thicken it up with some thickening.  We used:

2 Heaping TBS flour with some water, to where it was thick, not gloopy (that is Husband's word) and poured easily.  Stir in well.  

As it continues to simmer, uncovered now, boil your egg noodles to al dente.  

Pour over egg noodles and serve with vegetable of choice, and top with diced tomatoes- which sounds weird, but so nummy!

You can make it lower in fat by using the Fat Free options for everything listed- we used fat free cream cheese, but we had everything else on hand.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Pasta a la Cora

So, to totally toot my own horn- tonight I made an *amazing* dish- not for the heart healthy but for the nummy factor! 

Oh. My. Gosh!

The blend of flavors, so rich, but so right- yum!

This is, of course, a pasta dish, but super easy- promise! Although it *is* a dish for the multi-tasker... The sauce and the saute`e go on at the same time... just a forewarning.
So, of course, you boil pasta- while cooking, of course, and although  we used a weird noodle, but have since decided that we will be using the spirally noodles- they just sound better.

Ingredients:


Saute`e:
  • 1 Chicken breast- halved then sliced
  • 2 baby bella mushrooms- sliced
  • 1/4 yellow squash -julienne
  • 1/4 onion- sliced
  • 1 tsp roasted garlic- minced
  • 1 TBS olive oil
  • salt
  • milk
So, first, heat the olive oil into a pan- we use our awesome "sticky" pan- meaning we get the stuff kinda stuck to the bottom.  Add onions, stir.  Add roasted garlic, and cook together until you can actually smell the garlic blending beautifully with the onion.  Then add the mushroom and squash, cooking together.  Once it starts to "get happy" - I got that term from a fellow cook- it means to cook thru- add the sliced chicken.  Add a little more oil if the pan is sticking too badly.  Add a little- seriously, tiny amounts, more roasted garlic and some water, just to get a juice flowing in the pan.  Brown thoroughly.  Remove chicken from pan.  Add just enough milk to the bottom of the pan, getting all that browned up flavor off and making a nice brown gravy.  Once it starts to simmer again, add the chicken mixture back into the pan, heat thoroughly and set aside. 

Sauce:
  • 1 pint heavy cream
  • 1 heaping cup Parmesan cheese- grated finely
  • 3/4 c Ricotta cheese
  • 1 stem green onion- diced
  • 1/4 tsp roasted garlic 
  • onion salt
  • garlic salt
  • 1/2 TBS butter
  • baby spinach
  • 2 heaping tsp Pesto Sauce- to taste-ish
In a 2 quart sauce pan, add butter, letting it melt across the bottom.  Once all butter is melted, add baby spinach until it reaches the top of the pan-  cook down.  Remove from heat.  Pour in the cream, cheeses, stirring quickly to remove any chance of clumping.  Add green onion- stirring frequently.  When the cream starts to simmer, add the spinach back in.  Stir frequently and get it to a boiling simmer.  Allow it to simmer for a while.  

Remove from heat and serve!

This is possibly Husband's second favorite dinner that I've made since we've gotten married!  I hope you enjoy it!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Easy Peasy Creamy Chicken Burrittos

So- I love these... I think they're nummy and so simple to use and I only use them for one meal (which is super hard since they, like I said, are so easy to use)

So basic ingredients are:

Chicken breast- grilled strips 
1/4 c to 1/2 c Sour Cream
1/4 c to 1 c Cheddar Cheese- grated
2 tsp(ish) of Chili Arlic Sauce- not paste!
Italian Seasonings
Meat Tenderizer salt
and any other spice that tickles your fancy
Tortillas
Avocado
Tomatoes
Lettuce

Throw the chicken strips (they're frozen and they cook down just fine) and thaw them out, cooking them down.  Add the Chili sauce,  and seasonings and mix together- causing a nice nummy smell.  Cook together.  When the chicken is thoroughly cooked down, add sour cream and mix together.  Top with melted cheese, remove from heat and cover.

Warm up tortillas (or cook 'em up... we get the uncooked variety and they. are. amazing.)  Smooch down some avocado, add a little bit of salt to enhance the nummy avocado flavor. Dish up some of the chicken stuffs and put on avocado.  Top with tomatoes, lettuce, and salsa of your choice- again we really enjoy Pace Medium.  Wrap and enjoy! 

Seriously- so easy and such but so nummy. :-)

It's Been A While

So- I know that I've been slacking on posting the foods that we make- but I haven't really been cooking much- I don't like it when life gets away from me and when I stress about money- I often times just wanna spend it. 

NO BUENO!

So- my goal for this next week is to cook dinners... EVERY. DAY.

And I'm gonna try to post something new at least twice this week...

K. It's down on "paper"... now I hafta do it... right?

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Hearty Taco Soup

We made nummy taco soup for dinner tonight and had friends over to enjoy- figured we'd post the recipe since it was so good!

One big can of Stewed Tomatoes, with the tomatoes diced
(or 2 smaller cans of diced)
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans *rinsed*
1/2 bag (smaller) of frozen corn
2 chicken breast halves
1 stalk green onion diced
hot taco sauce

**(to taste)**
cumin
minced garlic
dry mustard
celery salt
meat tenderizer/ season salt
garlic salt
ketchup (slight- very slight amounts)
lime juice

Throw all canned ingredients and the "to taste" ingredients together- before adding the chicken breast.  Do just before "enough" and add chicken halves and corn

Let the crock pot do the work and put it on high for 3 hours.  Check the chicken.  When chicken is done, pull from crock pot and shred, replacing chicken after shredding.  

{taste again}

Add more ingredients- mainly garlic salt and cumin.  Just to taste.  Let cook for another hour to blend in the other tastes beautifully.  

Serve with cheese, sour cream, and quesedillas with dipping sauces.
Enjoy!  This stuff is filling!  So you {could} just enjoy it by itself!