Recipes and Cooking Ideas for Homemakers and Amateur Cooks
 

Year: 2007

Breads Biscuits and Rolls, Chicken and Turkey, Pies

Anybody on a diet? This meal is for you!

445 calories… including dessert! Not bad!

diet meal

Garlic Chicken Kiev
Chewy Pizza Bread
Cauliflower and Broccoli
Strawberry Pie

These recipes (except the caul and broc, that’s just cooked frozen veggies) all come from Betty Crocker’s Eat and Lose Weight Cookbook . After each recipe is a chart with as much info on it as you’d find on a nutrition label. I’ll just list the calories, carbs, and protein. If you want more info than that, let me know.

Garlic Chicken Kiev

3 Tbsp reduced calorie spead, softened (I used low-fat butter, half the calories of reg butter)
1 Tbsp chopped fresh chives or parsley (I used 1/2 Tbsp of each)
1/8 tsp garlic powder
6 skinless boneless chicken breast halves (1 1/2 lbs)
2 cups cornflakes, crushed (about 1 cup)
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk or skim milk

Mix spread, chives, and garlic powder, shape into rectangle, 3 x 2 inches. Cover and freeze about 30 min or until firm.     Trim fat from chicken. Flatten each chicken breast half to 1/4-inch thickness between wax paper or plastic wrap.     Heat oven to 425. Spray square pan, 9 x 9 x 2 inches, with non-stick cooking spray. Cut chives mixture crosswise into 6 pieces. Place one piece on center of each chicken breast half.
diet chic1  Fold long sides of chicken over chives mixture; fold up ends and secure with toothpick.
diet chic2  …yeah, as simple as that! Ha! It took me a long time to make these things and I used up to 4 toothpicks per piece! In a perfect world, chicken breast halves would all be shaped the same and be 4 ounces each!      Mix cornflakes, parsley, and paprika. Dip chicken into milk, then lightly and evenly coat with cornflake mixture.
diet chic3  Place chicken, seam sides down, in pan. Bake uncovered about 35 min or until chicken is no longer pink in center.
diet chic4   6 servings. Per serving: 190 calories; Carbohydrates, 9g; Protein, 25g        These tasted great! Nice and moist chicken! The fresh spices (or is it herbs?) give it lots of flavor! I’ll know more what I’m doing next time and hopefully the whole folding thing will go smoother and faster!!! Will definitely make again!

Chewy Pizza Bread

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup regular or non-alcoholic beer (Since I didn’t have beer on hand, I used Diet Coke)
1/2 cup speghetti sauce
1/3 cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese
Chopped fresh basil leaves, if desired (I didn’t do that)

Heat oven to 425. Spray round pan, 9 x 1 1/2 inches, with non-stick cooking spray. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Stir in beer just until flour is moistened.    Spread dough in pan. Spread speghetti sauce over dough. Sprinkle with cheese.
diet bread1  Bake 15-20 min or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Sprinkle with basil. Serve warm.
diet bread2    6 servings. Per serving: 145 calories; Carbohydrates, 29g; Protein, 4g      If you keep in mind that this is a diet dish, it’s actually very good! The problem was that there was too little cheese, but that’s diet for ya! I guess we’re just too used to stuff loaded with cheese… refer to previous post! I was surprised about this bread. I thought it would be biscuity, but it was actually more like regular raised bread, only more dense. It’s very filling, too. By the way, the Diet Coke seemed to work great as a substitute!

Strawberry Pie with Meringue Crust

2 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 cup sugar
1 pkg (1.1 oz) vanilla fat-free sugar-free instant pudding and pie filling
1 cup skim milk
1 1/2 cups frozen (thawed) reduced-fat whipped topping
1 pint strawberries (2 cups), sliced

Heat oven to 275. Spray pie plate, 9 x 1 1/4 inches, with non-stick cooking spray. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until foamy. Beat in sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy. Do not underbeat. Spread mixture evenly on bottom and halfway up side of pie plate. I put it to the top of the pie plate instead of halfway up.
diet pie1  Bake 40 min. Turn oven off; leave meringue in oven with door closed 1 hour. Finish cooling meringue at room temperature.
diet pie2     Beat pudding and pie filling with milk about 45 seconds, using wire whisk. Fold in one cup of the whipped topping. Layer half of the pudding mixture and half of the strawberries in crust; repeat.    Cover loosely and refrigerate till firm, at least one hour, but no longer than 8 hours. Run knife around edge to loosen crust. Top each serving with some of the remaining 1/2 cup whipped topping. I put the 1/2 cup Cool Whip on top right away and garnished it with a strawberry so that it would look more attractive sitting on the table during supper.  Cover and refrigerate any remaining pie.
diet pie3  8 servings. Per serving: 85 calories; Carbohydrate, 16g; Protein, 2g       This is just tops (for a low-cal dessert). The crust is great (meringue goes good with this pie), but it’s not too sturdy when you try to get pieces out of the pan. It kind of crumples up with the pie server sliding under it, so you don’t really end up with a picture-perfect piece. But the taste with fresh strawberries makes up for it! Yum!

By the way, one serving of the veggies was 25 calories . Not sure of the other specs on it.

Beef, Main Dishes

Wet Burritos

This recipe came from my mother-in-law. It’s really good!!!!! Try it!

Wet Burritos

1 lb hamburger
1 sm onion
1 pk taco seasoning
1 can refried beans
8 soft tortillas (9 inch)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups sour cream
8 oz grated cheese

Fry hamburger with onion. Add seasoning and beans. Put 1/8 of meat mixture in each tortilla. Roll up. Mix mushroom soup and sour cream. Put 1/2 of it into greased 9×13 pan. Put rolled tortillas in next,
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burritos2 then put rest of sauce on top, then the cheese.
burritos3  Bake at 350 for 40 min.
burritos4 Serve with sour cream and salsa. It’s so easy to make! With good babies and all, you can go from nothing to eating within an hour! In the 40 minutes it’s baking, you can easily get the rest of the meal around.

We had crescent rolls and salad with it.
burritos salad  I make my own croutons instead of buy them because I don’t like the hard ones that you can’t stab with a fork. It’s so easy… just take a couple pieces of bread, cut them into chunks with a pizza cutter. Put some melted butter in a pan (however much you want, I usually do around a Tablespoon, maybe a little less), then dash a few spices in, like oregano, basil, and onion power, or garlic powder. Throw the bread cubes in and mix them around till they seem to be pretty much coated with the butter. Put the pan in the oven for about 10 minutes, more if you want. Sometime during that time, I take the pan out and shake it around a little to try to get some of the croutons to flip over. They have a crunch, but yet you can stab them with a fork. Perfect!!!

Tidbits

What is your kitchen colors/theme?

Posted on January 13, 2007
Filed Under Tidbits

23 answers… very entertaining and interesting! Some were written humorously  and some ideas are very original and creative. Thanks alot for participating!!!!!! Here they are:

“I have one spot of everything .  Maybe I should get professional help…”

“I do apples so its red, green and I have added some accents of black to.”

“My kitchen has white walls.  The curtains are  blue, yellow, and white flowers with green leaves.  I made the curtains from the centerpieces that were on our tables at our wedding. That is about all I have as far as a theme.”

“yellow/sunflowers and it was inspired because we remodeled an old house that came with quaint yellow counter tops and yellow appliances… thankfully they all croaked.”

“dark weird looking olivish color and I really do like it. This may sound weird but all the accents are a dark country red. There is no bulkhead so the top of the cabinets are open and I have baskets, stars, old jars filled with beans, a watering can, an old bowl, red and white beady things and stuff like that up there. That’s my favorite part of the kitchen, the stuff I can stick along the top. :)”

“no color theme, but I have old kitchen ‘tools’, etc. Our house is a very old log house, and our kitchen used to be the back porch, so one wall in our kitchen is the old log look! That goes pretty well w/ our decor. 🙂

“Do you know what color “Butte Rock” is?! ha I actually would call it “Pumpkin Spice”. I like fruit , and there’s fruit on my china, so I have some fruit pics on the walls and also some of the fruit china and some antique fruity-looking pieces are displayed in a corner cabinet. Accent colors are green and blue. The soffit is stenciled with this verse: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” ”

“we redid everything just a few months ago. The cabinets were once an ugly dark brown stain- we painted them white, then sanded the edges off a little to give it an antique look . The walls we painted dark red, the countertops are the old ones ( tannish/brownish color) , and the floor is dark tan. It looks MUCH better in my opinion! I’m sticking with the country-style look with stars, antique-looking things, (plaques,etc). I’m sticking in a few black accents here and there, too.”

“oak cabinets with a ginger glaze, dark handles and a Victorian looking faucet , white trim and light tan walls.  No decorations.  I don’t really know what I want to do.  I’m kind of thinking bright bold Aztec colors, but how does that go with the faucet?”

“mostly neutral, with dusty rose accents .  I have golden-pecan stained oak cabinets with a little rail around the top (open area above), where I have baskets, jar candles, greenery, and those jars filled with flavored vinegars and vegetables.  Oh, there’s a rooster cookie jar, too.  The solid surface tops are white with specks of color in them–the dusty rose, Williamsburg blue, etc.  I have rose-colored Tupperware canisters and rugs the same color.  My appliances are black and stainless steel .”

“my kitchen is done in grapes . I have a grape/ ivy wall paper border, grape valances at the windows and grape canister set and other grape nic-nacks.”

“My kitchen is apples . I love it! I have collected a lot of apple things from Home Interiors over the last number of years. Mostly at yard sales or things I “earned” from having a party. I use the red and country blue, though, rather than the green.”

“I have a coffee theme and also a few little “fat” chefs. I love coffee shops and Starbucks so I decided to do my kitchen along that line. I have little coffee signs on the walls and empty mocha bottles and coffee cans sitting in the window.”

“My kitchen is black & white with sunflowers !”

“My kitchen in the house we just move out of was oak and white farmhouse style with yellow and red apples. It was so bright and cheerful. But I am going with an entirely diferent theme in the new house. It is going to be kinda old world vineyard look. Light and dark cabinetry with tile. the colors are aged stone, kinda sage/olive green and burnished red, with an olive and herbed oil theme.”

“ivy & birdhouses for now, who knows what it will end up being, I move to much! 🙂 But sometimes I’m fooled for a minute and think my kitchen theme is junk mail, stray toys, and stuff (sitting on my counter….waiting…)!!!”

“For the “theme colors” in my kitechen just ask Freida…. it’s a very bad multi-colored wall paper theme :( ”

“My kitchen and dining room are red.  Like a dark brick red .  I decorate with teasets/china and also antiques.”

“My kitchen? It is galley style with limited wall space so there is no theme, simply green . The backsplash is a dark “Riverbank” and the cupboards are Very pale “sitka” or something.”

“My kitchen started out as blueberries and strawberries , but since that was a hard theme to find, I soon ended up using a fruit theme – with berries still be the main theme.”

“We have a clock with cows on it and a wooden cow face shape given to me by a dear friend many years ago. (I used to collect cows.) I have a wooden decoration on my counter that talks about apple pie with vanilla ice cream and caramel. Having had that combination before – and loving it! – I couldn’t pass up that decoration.”

“right now it has fruit wallpaper (which isn’t that bad but it is not me at all) and then I have lots of sunflower decorations(what my old kitchen was). So it doesn’t look all that great but I hope to redo it one of these days.:)”

“I have a coffee theme.Also I love the enamelware things to…but this kitchen is smaller than the last.I’m still figuring out how to get my old stove in the kitchen!”

Just a few comments: The grapes kitchen brought back memories… that’s what my kitchen was in our first house after we got married. My sister has a coffee kitchen and gets lots of compliments on it. I loved the ‘junk mail, stray toys, and stuff’ comment… so true! Should see my kitchen sometimes, seems like that type of stuff is more over-powering sometimes than Coca-Cola! My mom has apples… they live on an orchard too. Someone mentioned a rooster cookie jar… my aunt has rooster decor in her kitchen. I always thought that was so neat and original. The old kitchen tools one with the log wall, I’d love to see! Can’t tell you enough how interesting this was to me! I hope you found it interesting too!

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Now, to spark some nostalgia… What certain dish does/did your Grandma make that you love or that she’s well-known for?

It seems like Grandmas often have something like that, and they should, what with all their years of experience!   The first thing I thought of was my Grandma Graber’s brown sugar pie . I love it and she makes it about every time the family gets together because everyone is crazy about it. My cousin can make it perfectly now and it turned out perfect for me the last time I made it! Grandma gave us some tips (like beat the eggs like crazy and get it out of the oven while it’s still a little jiggly), which really helped… I flopped that pie so many times, just ask Shannon! He had never heard of it before. Maybe you never did either. I’ll have to feature it on here… and hope it gets right again *fingers crossed*!

When I asked Shannon about his grandma, right away he thought of 1 thing from his one grandma and 2 things from his other grandma. One of the things was pig stomach . Ever have that? It was a new thing to me, but it’s very good!

So, let’s hear about your grandma’s cookin’!

Cookies and Bars

No Bake Cookies

Liz put this recipe on her site and when I saw it, I got hungry for them and just had to make them! Liz is my sister-in-law and we have 9 1/2 month old babies born 2 days apart. I made these cookies for scrapbooking day and they were a hit among the children! One thing that was so nice about them is that they’re fast… about an hour after I decided to make them, I was putting them in a container to go! Another nice thing is that they use very common staple ingredients.

No Bake Cookies

Part A:
2 C. sugar
3 T. cocoa
1/2 C. margarine
1/2 C. milk
Dash salt Part B:
3 C. quick cooking oats
1/2 C. peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla Bring part A to a rapid boil.
nobake1 
Boil for 1 minute; then add ingredients in Part B.  (Have B ingredients measured and ready to dash into cooked mixture.)  Mix well and working quickly drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.  I used Liz’s idea and added chocolate chips, but they melted, but oh well, at least there was extra chocolate flavor!
nobake2
Yields 4 dozen wonderful candylike cookies.  A special treat to make on a hot day.
nobake3
They look wet when you first drop them on wax paper, but as they cool, they harden, and one way to tell they’re ready is that they lose their shiny look. They’re so good!!!!

Desserts

Cheesecake!

We love cheesecake! It is one of the best desserts out there! I’ve made lots of cheesecakes, all of them great, and just tried another one last weekend. This recipe comes from Easy to Bake, Easy to Make . It’s a collection of recipe cards that come in the mail (with a bill, of course) to put in a recipe box they give you. They have some great recipes, including a red velvet cake that’s to die for. I should make it again just to get pictures to feature it on here so you all can taste it! There are also some ‘main dish’ cards that I have set aside to try sometime.

Classic New York Cheesecake

Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Filling:
4 pkgs (8 oz each) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
1 Tablespoon vanilla (yeah, that’s right, Tablespoon… I know, sounds like alot)
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs

Crust:
Mix crumbs, sugar, and butter; press onto bottom of 9″ springform pan.
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Bake @ 325 for 10 min if using a silver springform pan. Bake at 300 for 10 min if using a dark nonstick springform pan. I baked Lexi’s along with mine at 325 for 7 min.

Filling:
Mix cream cheese, sugar, flour, and vanillla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Blend in sour cream. Add eggs, mixing on low speed just until blended. Pour over crust. (Lexi said, ‘It would be messy to pour, so it would be better to spoon it.’ ).
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Bake at 325 for 65 to 70 min or until center is almost set if using a 9″ springform pan. Bake at 300 for 65 to 70 min or until center is almost set if using a 9″ dark nonstick springform pan. I baked Lexi’s along with mine at 325 for 40 min.
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Run knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake (forgot to do this step, so that may be why it cracked) ; cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
cc5  We covered the little one with caramel and covered the big one with strawberry pie filling. I know, where’s the chocolate?!
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Variation: Want to make a chocolate cheesecake? Just add 1/2 cup cocoa powder to the recipe above. This particular one is topped with ganache, fresh raspberries, and chocolate curls.
chocolate raspberry cheesecake

Comments

One Response to “Cheesecake!”

  1. cathy on June 11th, 2009 12:39 pm

    I remember my mom making these 50 years ago!! I used to make them for my kids too.

Breakfasts, Main Dishes, Pies, Soups

Totally “off the wall” recipes (sorry to those of you who don’t like puns… I couldn’t help myself)

Posted on January 8, 2007
Filed Under Breakfasts, Main dishes, Pies, Soups

Blueberry Muffins
Farmer’s Market Soup
Chicken Pot Pie
Apple Pie
If you remember my cookie baking/candy making post, the kitchen that we were at had the neatest wallpaper!!!!
recipe wall   It was in the kitchen at Sandra’s (xsenergyo5) church. Sandra, have you guys ever tried them? The wallpaper has 4 recipes repeated on it. So, I took pictures of each recipe and made them. I hope you can read them ok… I’ll see how it looks after it’s uploaded and if I can’t read them, I’ll type them out. *Edit*…I just checked to see if I could read them and it’s a little hard, but if you click on the picture, it opens a new window that it’s bigger and more readable in.

Blueberry Muffins

recipe muffins

Some notes: I didn’t know what double-acting baking powder was, but my baking powder in my cupboard said ‘double-acting’ on it, so maybe all baking powder is?????    I also just used my regular nutmeg from my spices instead of getting a nutmeg and grating it for ‘freshly grated’. I used frozen blueberries, not fresh, but I think fresh would be better and not as juicy, so I want to make it sometime with fresh. The batter was more of a cookie dough consistency, which kind of surprised me, but the muffins were great!!! Some of the best I’ve had! They were moist and dense, which I like! We loved them!!! I will definitely make these again!!! Now for the pictures…
 muffins1

muffins2

muffins3

muffins4

Farmer’s Market Soup

recipe soup

Some notes: I used baby carrots and figured 9 would equal one big one. I’ve never in my life peeled a tomato before! What a juicy mess! I put just enough water in to come up to the level of the veggies, they weren’t totally covered… that way it wouldn’t make alot of broth.  Um, now for what we thought of it… I thought it was good in a but-I’d-never-make-it-again way. I made a half batch and was glad I did because I had the whole thing to myself! It sure is healthy though!!!! It took a long time to cut up all those veggies!

soup1

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soup3

soup4

Chicken Pot Pie

recipe potpie

Some notes: After it simmered for 20 minutes, I thought the broth didn’t seem thick enough, so I put in an extra tablespoon of flour. I missed a picture of the chicken/veggie part of the pot pie before putting the dough on top. For the biscuit dough, I used a recipe that was very good, but it ended up sort of limp and sticky and hard to work with, so the pot pie ended up looking pretty messy. I used all but about 5 biscuit’s worth of the dough (the recipe took 2 cups of flour to give you an idea of the size batch it was), so then I just baked those biscuits and served them with the meal. We really liked this! It was good and flavorful. Not sure if I’d make it again, just simply because it took awhile to make and we don’t do much in the way of casserole-type dishes. But I would definitely recommend it!!!!

potpie1

potpie2

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potpie4   

Apple Pie

recipe pie

Some notes: Too many apples! I used a 9″ deep dish pie plate and as you will see, it was piled high! I cut up 8 and used probably 6 apples, and they were medium sized, not huge. I used Golden Delicious mainly because that’s the only kind I recognized (and I used to live on an apple orchard! ). I used brown sugar. Before the height of this pie scares you off, it’s not actually that huge. The crust stays up and the apples settle, as you can see in the last picture after we took a couple pieces out. This pie was absolutely tops! The winner of all the “wall” recipes! I will definitely make it again. Great flavor and so perfect warm with a serving of ice cream!!!

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Grilling, Main Dishes, Pork and Ham

Open-faced pork chop sandwiches by my husband

A guest appearance!

Grilling is my husband Shannon’s specialty. He’s got some pretty mean stuff coming off the grill sometimes! YUM!!!! One of those things is the open-faced pork chop sandwich . I asked him if he could make a ‘guest appearance’ on this site to feature them. He agreed to do it… so, here he is…

I can’t believe I am being a guest writer on Kay’s blog. Further, I can’t believe I am actually sitting down with my laptop to write about a pork chop.

As you will see, this is not a complicated recipe. As with nearly all of my food prep related endeavors, this recipe centers around the charcoal grill.

Ingredients: Boneless pork chops, white bread, provolone cheese, BBQ sauce, seasoning.

Step 1: Season pork chops to taste. I use Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Meat Magic seasoning or a Cajun seasoning.

Step 2: Grill over hot coals.

porkchop1 To an internal temp of 160. Pork, unlike steak, should not be done medium or rare unless the intended audience has a particular affinity for food born illness.

Step3: While chops are grilling, toast one piece of bread for each chop.

porkchop3

Step 4: P ut a piece of the sliced provolone cheese on the toast (I know this is a technical and difficult process but stick with me here).

porkchop4

Step 5: Cut the chops into strips a little over 1/4 th in. thick.

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Step 6: Put strips of chop on the piece of toast and cheese, using the grab and plop technique.

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Step 7: Pour boiling hot BBQ sauce over the chop and cheese.

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This is really where a lot of the flavor comes from. I use Famous Dave’s Rich and Sassy BBQ Sauce . If you haven’t had Famous Dave’s you should at least give it a try. {Side note: “Famous” Dave Anderson has a lake home on Round Lake about 3 miles from where we live. I have had the chance to meet him on several occasions including one night after midnight when I stopped into our local grocery store and he was shopping at 12:30 in the morning. Dave started Famous Dave’s of America restaurant chain and later was appointed by President G.W. Bush as the head of the Borough of Indian Affairs in Washington DC. (an agency with over 10,000 employees) end side note}

Where was I? Oh yeah, make sure the bbq sauce is very hot so it melts the cheese. Serve as an open faced sandwich. The 2 mistakes I have made when making these are 1. Leaving the meat on the grill too long till it is too dry. And 2. Not putting enough BBQ sauce on top.

Well that’s it. See, I told you it was a simple recipe.

May you always be surrounded by good friends and great food.