Quote of the Week!

“I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

March 30, 2011

Chicken Delight

This is a meal I made for our potluck on Monday night! It's so yummy and so simple to make. It's my fiance's mom's recipe but I will post it here, I make a few changes. I have this recipe cut down to make for 2 people but you can easily make more by doubling or tripling.

2 Chicken Breasts
1 cup of Ketchup
1 cup water (or 1 can of mushrooms plus liquid)
2 Tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp of Molasses
Dash of paprika
1 chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper

Sautee onions and bell pepper. Boil remaining ingredients. Pour over chicken and bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.

March 25, 2011

Garlic Fingers Recipe

This is something very simple to make and I haven't quite mastered it yet. I won't include measurements because it depends on the size of garlic fingers you make.

Ingredients (This is for 1/3 of a large square pizza pan)

Pizza dough (see recipe in blog)
2-3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil
3-4 cloves, crushed garlic
1 cup mozzarella cheese
Bacon bits (optional)
1-2 tsp basil (optional)

In a small bowl, mix olive oil, garlic and basil. Brush mixture onto dough evenly and sprinkle with bacon bits and cheese. Bake at the same temperature as you would your pizza, about 425 C. Cut into fingers and ENJOY!!!

Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread = Yummy!


I've been wanting to make this for a long time and decided it would be nice to try today since I have cream cheese in our fridge. I made a few changes, first off I halved this also. I didn't have icing sugar so I blended up some white sugar until it was a powder. Hopefully it tastes the same. I will post a picture soon. I think next time I would like to make the biscuits from scratch. The ones, Pillsbury, that I have seem to have little white bits in them and I have no idea what that is!! Also I didn't have the pan recommended so I used a 8" round cake pan. The bread is just one layer but that's fine, I didn't want to make too much because I know this is high in calories!
Ingredients

Biscuits
2 cans (340 g each) refrigerated country biscuits
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted

Icing
125 g (1/2 of 250-g pkg.) Philadelphia Brick Cream Cheese, softened (I used the one in a tub instead of the brick kind)
1/2 cup icing sugar (or 1/2 cup white sugar blended to a powder)
1 Tbsp. milk (I used 1 tsp of vanilla instead)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Cut each biscuit into quarters.
Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Add biscuit pieces, in batches; toss to coat.
Place half the biscuit pieces in greased 3-L fluted tube pan or 10-inch tube pan; drizzle with half the butter. Repeat. Sprinkle with any remaining cinnamon sugar. Bake 40 to 45 min. or until toothpick inserted near centre comes out clean and top is golden brown. Cool in pan 5 min; invert onto plate. Remove pan.
Beat remaining ingredients with mixer until well blended; drizzle over warm bread.

This is VERY tasty! Kind of like cinnamon roll meets tea biscuit! I'm impressed with my icing too!

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Source

I halved this recipe and it looks like it is going to make lots! Also, I couldn't find tomato puree so I used tomato sauce instead. I didn't use the onion powder, Italian seasoning or fresh parsley. I added thyme and chopped red pepper. I plan to freeze some and can add more veggies like mushrooms and zucchini later. I hope it tastes good, I'll have to update later!

Ingredients

2 cans crushed tomatoes
2 cans tomato puree
1 small can tomato paste
2-3 tbsp. olive oil
4-5 cloves fresh garlic
1-2 fresh onions
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, minced
1/2 tsp. dried basil or 2 tbsp. fresh, minced
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste (add near end of cooking)
1/2 tsp. black pepper

In a large heated pot with olive oil, add finely chopped onions. When halfway done, add minced garlic. Cook until browned. Add tomato paste and mix well. Then add tomato puree and crushed tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, parsley, basil and Italian seasoning. Mix well. Cook for at least 6 hours on low heat.

March 22, 2011

This week's meal plan, hope we stick to this one!

Monday: I'm on my own so I'll have leftover goulash from Sunday.

Tuesday: Beef stew and dumplings (aka dough boys) Recipe to follow

Wednesday: Stuffed Peppers and roasted zucchini and cheese.

Thursday: Grilled chicken Caesar wraps and sweet potato fries

Friday: Homemade pizza and garlic fingers (Will include recipe for garlic fingers later too)

Saturday: Depends on if we go out of town

Sunday: Depends on if we go out of town

My favorite banana bread recipe!

I have been making this recipe for a while now and we both love it! I've made the change of using WW flour instead of white and I cut down on the sugar.  Resource for recipe

Ingredients

  • 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • Pinch of salt 
  • 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour (WW flour)

Method

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.
Yield: Makes one loaf.

Picture to follow: Cooking at the moment! 

March 13, 2011

Somewhat of a meal plan! Not good at sticking to it!

Let's see how well I stick to this! Update, we failed at sticking to this completely!! :P

Monday: Stuffed Peppers (Stuff peppers with ground beef, spinach, mozzarella cheese, cashews, zucchini, rice, onions, and mushrooms), steamed broccoli with cheese sauce.

UPDATE: We didn't have stuffed peppers, I have my fiance sick of them! We had homemade hamburgers on our new BBQ and spinach salad instead.

Tuesday: Weight Watchers Linguine Alfredo
UPDATE: We had Thursday's supper today, it was a late supper and busy day.

Wednesday: Chicken Caesar wraps with roasted sweet potatoes
UPDATE: We had beef tacos today!

Thursday: Three cheese stuffed pasta and spaghetti sauce with garlic bread
UPDATE: Not sure what I'll make today, this plan isn't going well at all!Tonight we had BBQ steak, sweet potatoes, grilled peppers and some baguette.

Friday: Home Made Pizza with Garlic Fingers
UPDATE: We got invited out for dinner so this will get pushed to another day, probably Saturday!

Saturday: Now we'll have pizza and garlic fingers. We didn't have pizza!! Haha, we had homemade chicken burgers and tomato basil soup!

Sunday: Beef Stew with dumplings (aka dough boys)
Probably not having this as my fiance is going away. May have goulash or some meal that he doesn't like!I'm making goulash for supper!

March 08, 2011

Blueberry Muffins (Made a bit healthier!)

This is a modification to my Mother-in-law's recipe. They are so yummy but I wanted to avoid the white flour. I took a little taste and they taste great! I can't even tell I added whole wheat flour!! I'll see what Evan thinks when he tries them! Stay tuned for my favorite banana bread next week!! (I LOVE it!)

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
2 cups flour (I used whole wheat)
2 tsp baking powder 
1/2 tsp salt 
1/2 cup butter 
1 cup sugar (I used 3/4 cup)
2 eggs 
1/2 cup milk 
1 tsp vanilla 
1 cup blueberries (I added an extra 1/4 cup)
*My addition to the recipe - 1/2 cup crushed bran flakes

Directions
Mix dry ingredients in large bowl not the sugar though. In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mix in milk and vanilla. Make a well in centre of dry ingredients and pour in mixture. Stir just to moisten. Fold in blueberries. Fill greased muffin cups " full. Bake at 400 ̊ for 20 to 25 minutes until brown.

Notes
Makes about 1 dozen.

Here are some pictures of the process, I'm trying to increase my photography skills so bare with me!