Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower

I love oven roasted or BBQed veggies. This is an easy way to make restaurant tender broccoli and cauliflower. You'll love this if you love fire roasted veggies and if you like your veggies just tender instead of cooked into mush.

1/4 c first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
3-4 minced garlic cloves
2 heads of broccoli florets
1 large head of cauliflower
salt

Wash and break apart (or cut) florets of broccoli and cauliflower. Toss in bowl with olive oil and garlic cloves till well coated. Spread florets out on a cookie sheet covered with foil. Bake uncovered in a 375 degrees for about 30-45 minutes or until desired tenderness. Sprinkle with salt before serving.

Crockpot Curry Chicken

Okay, I made this up..... =0) It turned out really good. I'm always looking for more ways to cook chicken since we don't eat much red meat. My mom made a curry chicken recipe when I was growing up that I loved and I've been thinking about that lately so I decided to try to come up with an easy crockpot recipe. I started with a curry chicken crockpot recipe that called for cream of chicken soup (which I wasn't crazy about using)...so I omitted that and made up my own recipe along the way. It's pretty healthy! I think you'll love this if you like mild curry. My kids liked it. It was not spicy at all. If you like spicy curry dishes, you'll want to add more curry. Maybe try doubling the curry to start.


3-5 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tbsp butter
1/4 c Marsala wine (sherry or any red cooking wine will do)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp curry
2 chopped green onions (or 1 tsp dried minced onion)
2 minced garlic cloves

Sauce:

1/4 c whole wheat flour
1/2 stick butter
water


Place chicken, butter, wine, salt, pepper, curry, onion, and garlic in the crockpot at around noon. Cook on low. Before ready to serve, remove chicken and set aside. In a skillet, make a rue by melting the butter in the skillet and then adding the flour. Whisk till blended and bubbly and add the liquid from the cooked chicken in the crockpot and whisk till thickened. If too thick, add some water. This makes a curry gravy for your chicken. Return the chicken and the sauce to the crockpot till ready to serve.



Serve over brown rice.

One more blunder

After reading Jessica's funny blunder, I realized that I completely forgot to post this one on my original post......I was in a hurry as I threw the ingredients into my bread machine for this bread that I make all the time. Well, you can't get lazy about bread measurements or this is what happens. I didn't pack the flour well as I was measuring it and I even told myself "you should measure this out better" but I didn't listen. So I'm introducing my new Cave Bread to you! =0) LOL

Whole Grain Mini Pizzas

I've been able to find whole grain wheat english muffins which makes this old mommy-stand-by an even healthier option for lunch.

Split english muffins in half. Let the kids sauce them, top them with their favorite toppings and sprinkle their own cheese. Into the oven for about 15 min. on 400 degrees and you're good to go for a whole grain lunch.

I took a picture of the finished product but yet again, my camera deleted it. I'll be reformatting that memory card.

Cooking Blunders

Okay, I thought it would be fun to post some of my cooking blunders. I'm always trying new recipes and with that comes success and failures. I also have some funny kitchen blunders in general to tell you about. So, lest you think I always have perfect cooking....well, ha-hum....

So this first picture is a recipe I got off of the foodnetwork website. It's a whole grain pasta mac n cheese recipe made with sweet potatoes. Well, it was awful! It was so bad I couldn't eat all of my serving. I threw the rest of the dish away when everyone was done with dinner that night. Note to self, sweet potatoes and cheese don't go together!

This next picture is a baked oatmeal recipe I tried awhile back. It's NOT the one posted on this site. That one is actually GOOD! This one was about an inch thick when it was done and tasted like it had a cup of salt in it! LOL.

Okay this one wasn't the recipe's fault..it was chef error. These veggie packed oatmeal chocolate chip cookies turned out okay but when I looked back at the recipe the next day I realized that I put completely wrong amounts of some of the ingredients. At least they were edible. I'll try to make them again the right way and post them on here.

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In my early years of cooking and married, I got a recipe from some friends for a pot of beans that was supposed to be spectacular. I soaked them all night, cooked them all day and worked hard at making this pot of beans. My dear husband and I got home from work and could hardly stand the terrible stench that was coming from our kitchen and filling our whole apartment. What was it? The pot of beans. We both looked down into the pot and agreed that there was no way on this earth we were going to be able to eat that. Down the sink it went with the garbage disposal running and off to a fast food restaurant we went. I haven't made a pot of beans since.

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So, then there was the time years ago when we had some friends over for dinner who will remain nameless, but here are their blog links...this one and this one and I was serving tacos out on the back patio...well after much chopping of lots of toppings and perfectly preparing the tortillas, we sat down to eat. It was then that I realized I had never cooked the taco meat. I asked my sweet innocent guests why they hadn't mentioned it as they watched me put everything on the table...they replied "we thought maybe you were vegetarian now." They were so kind...they were going to just go along with it. I had a good laugh and am still teased by my family about my meatless tacos. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had served beans at least but I didn't so it was going to be salad in a taco shell. I kindly asked everyone at the table to please stop serving their plates and give me about 10 min. to run in the house and cook the meat. I was SO embarrassed!

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I'm also still teased about the time I made my siblings baked potatoes that were under cooked. I made them eat them anyway and we all sat at the table crunching our apple hard baked potatoes. LOL. I was in high school...what can I say.

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So, I've shared my cooking blunders and now I want to hear yours! Don't be shy! The comments section is waiting for you to fill it up with cooking blunders. Please tell me I'm not the only one! =0)

Brown Rice Pilaf

My kitchen camera has been randomly deleting photos which makes it difficult to have a photographic recipe blog! =0) So, I had to get out my other camera and do some make-up pictures.

Here's a product that I've been wanting to try and also share with you. I tried it and it's good! It's whole grain brown rice pilaf. I'm always looking for healthy side dishes that are easy to make for dinners when I'm tired. =0) This one does take about 45 min. to cook though so you have to have some time available but it's easy because you just start it and walk away. Or you can cook it ahead of time and refrigerate it.

Hope you can find it or something similar in your grocery store. When I have time to really scan the isles, I'm amazed at what I find.

BBQ Beef Sandwiches

This is a very simple dinner to make.

Put a roast in the crock pot on low before going to bed. Let it cook all night and all day the next day. By dinner time it will be so tender that if you prick it with a fork it will shred with ease. Shred all the meat and then add BBQ sauce (don't drain the meat juices, the beef will absorb it when it's shredded). Serve it on dinner rolls with mayo and sliced provolone.

Your basic grocery store roast will make about 8 generous sized dinner roll sandwiches. Keep in mind when figuring out portion sizes that a roast will shrink to about half it's size when cooked that long.

For an added kick, serve it with saurkraut on the sandwhich or with a side of my homemade coleslaw. You can cut my coleslaw recipe in half and to make it simpler, use bagged shredded coleslaw from the store and just mix up the dressing recipe (half the recipe for 1 bag of slaw).

Hot Pudding over Ice Cream

I have memories of my Grandma Smith making this dessert when I was a kid. She would make chocolate cook n serve pudding and while it was still hot on the stove she would serve it poured over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It's so yummy and simple.

My Grandma Smith is my mom's mom and she is now in her 90s. She had 9 girls and 1 boy (he is the baby of the family). My mom is number 5. Grandma is a great cook even though she doesn't like to admit it. She taught us all so much about being domestic and mostly what I learned from her I learned through my mom. Thanks Grandma Smith and Mom for teaching me to be domestic and passing on a love for cooking.

Every time I have this simple dessert I picture myself at Grandma's house having this.

Pizza Sauce

Well, I finally found the sauce I've been looking for. I put out this recipe request and got no response on anything to try in the comments. But, verbally, my friend, Kiley told me that they love Classico and I think she said the five cheese one. So, I decided to try Classico's Organic Tomato Herb Spice Pasta Sauce. It DOES remind me of what Numero Uno pizza sauce tastes like. I highly recommend it. And no, I did not doctor it at all. =0) We've been using it for our pastas and pizza sauce without adding sugar to it but sometimes I still sneak in some pureed veggies (like roasted red bell peppers and zucchini).

Sneaky Oatmeal

Don't tell my family, but I've been sneaking wheat bran, wheat germ, and flax seed into their oatmeal. Shhhhh! When you make it from scratch just add 2 tbsp (or more) of any of the above or combination of the above to the pot of cooking oatmeal. You can add as much or as little that works for you. Just be careful not to put too much wheat bran as to cause abdominal cramping and/or diarrhea.

Stuffed Peppers

I started making this without a recipe a few years back and my husband loves them. I've slowly perfected my own version for our family and maybe you can do the same for yours. These are pretty healthy and they make a wonderful vegetarian meal as well. This is also another opportunity to sneak in some pureed veggies....I use zucchini in this recipe. I still don't have a written recipe so here's my best guesstimate on measurements. =0)

What's great about these is that they can be incredibly healthy....whole grains from the brown rice and packed with vitamins from the peppers, zucchini, and cooked tomatoes.

6 bell peppers

2 c cooked brown rice

2 c cooked ground Italian sausage or ground beef or ground turkey, or chopped portobello mushrooms

1-2 c pasta sauce (depends how saucy you like it)

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp anise seed

optional: 1/2 pureed roasted peppers and 1 c pureed zucchini or less

1 can tomato soup

1 c milk

Wash and cut the tops off the bell peppers. Remove seeds and membrane. Set in a sprayed glass deep baking dish. In a bowl, mix together tomato soup and milk and set aside. Mix the remaining ingredients together and spoon mixture into bell peppers. Pour tomato soup mixture over peppers. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 45 min. or until peppers are cooked through and tops are browned. Serve with sour cream.

Variations:

~ make it vegetarian with mushrooms instead of meat or poultry. IF you use mushrooms instead of meat, I would use a little more rice because the mushrooms really cook down. Probably an extra cup of rice.

~ omit the tomato soup and milk sauce

~ omit the pureed veggies if you don't have them but you'll need to add about a cup of extra pasta sauce

~ use white rice instead of brown

These would probably make a great freezer meal as well.

This is a great one dish meal since it's packed with grains and veggies. But you could always serve it with a nice salad.

Also, I don't use green bell peppers because they are harder to digest. A green bell pepper is an unripe pepper. They turn yellow, orange, and red when they are ripe.

Favorite Gadget- Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer

It's that time again...favorite gadget of the month!

My kids love this thing too. It peels, cores and slices your apples for you just by the crank of your hand. When adding diced apples to a recipe, this makes it go quickly. My kids even love to have apples this way for a snack....just plain but like a slinky. It's worth investing in this tool if you like to make lots of apple pies or apple sauce. I find that small apples work best on it. Mine is from Pampered Chef

and if you buy theirs with the stand I find that it's easiest to store it on the stand and never take it off. I also rinse mine as soon as I'm done using it to make cleaning it easy. If you let apple dry on it, it's difficult to clean. This is a great tool!

Submitted Recipes

I'm going to start a label for submitted recipes so that others know where they are. They can be found under the comments sections of these posts: ENJOY!

Be sure to check the submitted recipes under the comments section of this post.

Jen's Easy Crockpot Cranberry Pork Roast

Jessica's Quick Oatmeal

Shannon's German Apple Pancake

Jessica's Quick Chicken Cutlets

Spring's Brownie Frosting

Spring's Cookie Frosting

Pizza Sauce Recipe

Shannon's Risotto

Sneaky Pancakes with Sweet Potatoes

Well, I finally did it! I sneaked some squash into my kid's diet! Victory! These sweet potato pancakes from Deceptively Delicious Cookbook are great! They have a cinnamon flavor that comes through. I highly recommend the book! I've been learning how to incorporate this cooking method into my cooking as well.



I did the recipe a little different since I bought sweet potatoes that were already pureed and had cinnamon added to them already. But here is the basic recipe.

1 c pancake mix (I used whole wheat flapjack mix)
1 c water
1/2 c pureed sweet potatoes
1/4 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin spice (omit if your sweet potatoes are already seasoned)

Mix together and cook them up. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

No Rise Pizza Dough or Focaccia Bread

I've posted this pizza dough recipe before here and here (I've called it Amish Quick Dough before) but I'm going to post it again. It doesn't have to rise which is wonderful because it's FAST! By adding some herbs and baking it flat you can use it to make your own focaccia bread which would work great as a bakeover crust.

1 tbsp yeast
1 c warm water
Dissolve the above together.

Add while mixing in your mixer:
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp veg. oil
2 1/2 c flour
(optional herbs, cheeses, pesto, garlic, etc.)

Knead till smooth. Shape into a circle for pizza (makes about a 16 in. or two 8 in.) or as a focaccia (about 12 in. but thicker) bread on a pizza stone. If making focaccia bread, make sure you leave it about 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick at least. You may also want to let it rise for about 15-20 min. before baking to make it a little thicker.

You can use white flour or whole wheat. (do NOT use whole wheat pastry flour, it comes out like corn meal for some reason.)

Biscuits

2 c flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c softened butter
3/4 c milk (or buttermilk)

mix together by hand till blended (do not over mix). Roll out to desired thickness (they will only bake up a little so make them close to as thick as you'll want them). If making individual biscuits, use a floured biscuit cutter to cut them. If you don't have a biscuit cutter you can use a mason jar lid ring. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 450 degrees for about 10-12 min or golden brown on top. If using for a bakeover crust, roll it out into a circle shape the size of your pan and place on your pan.

Variations:
-use whole wheat flour (add a little more butter if using all whole wheat)
-add seasonings like basil, oregano, Italian seasoning mix, garlic
-add fillings like some grated sharp cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, or 2 tbsp pesto

Bakeover Breads

I want to post a few breads that you can use for your bakeovers so I'll be posting a few of those next. =0)

Bake Overs

I promised you a new cooking method so here it is. =0)

For years women have been making the family casserole meal for many of their week night meals and serving these casseroles at potlucks and to guests. It's time to give the casserole a face lift. Drum roll please.......I bring to you, Mary Jane's Bake Over. What's a Bake Over you ask? A Bake Over is basically a casserole flipped over (EXCEPT IT CAN BE REALLY HEALTHY!). It's a convenient one dish meal which makes clean up nice and easy. There are so many variations of the Bake Over that you can get really creative with your own version.

A casserole flipped over? Yup. What you do is, saute your veggies in some olive oil or butter, dash of seasoning of your choice, add meat and/or cheese if desired and then top it with a bread dough like you would a pie crust. Put the skillet in the oven and bake. Once it's done you take it out and flip it onto a serving platter.

But it doesn't stop there. The Bake Over can be made for breakfast (using breakfast items including eggs with a biscuit top) or even for dessert (using fresh berries and fruit with a cookie dough crust).

I discovered Mary Jane's "Bake Overs" while reading one of her books, , at my mom's cabin. I was so taken with this idea. I really wanted to try it out but some of the root veggie recipes she suggested didn't sound that appetizing to me. So, I've been working at coming up with versions of this "Bake Over" concept that are healthy but appetizing to the every day palette. But, if you are trying to stay on a vegetarian diet or even a whole foods diet, these can be very basic and healthy! So, after studying her book and her website, I began experimenting. Now, I bring to you my very own Bake Over. See following post...


I recommend you buy her book if you are farm girl at heart or browse her website. She also has a wonderful magazine. You can purchase directly from her site her "Bake Over sampler" which is a starter kit complete with a specially made pan to make her bake overs in. She sells several bread mixes to use for the top of your Bake Overs which would make this a very simple way to make them. I have chosen to use my own pan and my own bread recipes and store bought mixes (like cookie dough and corn bread) to duplicate this idea. I'd post some of her fabulous pictures here but they are all copyrighted. So, DO click on her website links and view for yourselves. I'm happy to promote her business. =0)

So, get creative and try your own variations! Hope you enjoy this new method of cooking!

There is a method to the Bake Over which is this:

4 cups veggies
or
4 cups fruit
(for a 10-12 in skillet)
and 1 package mix

Bakeover Ingredients

Some things to try in your bakeovers....

Veggies for your Bakeovers:
artichoke hearts
asparagus
beans
beets
broccoli
brussel sprouts (slice them in half to release their bitterness)cabbage
carrots
cauliflower
celery
chard
fennel bulb
jicamakale
mushrooms
onions
parsnips
bell peppers
potatoes
rutabagas
hot peppers
spinach
squash
scallions
tomatoes
tomatillos
turnips
yams
zucchini


Fruits:
apples
apricots
bananas
blackberries
blueberries
huckleberries
boysenberries
cherries
figs
gooseberries
kumquats
mangos
peaches
papaya
pears
pineapple
raspberries
rhubarb
strawberries

Meats, Nuts, Packaged Products:
Cheeses - cheddar, Asiago, Parmesan, feta, cream cheese, jack, Havarti, mozzarella, etc.
chicken
sausage
bacon
ground turkey
beef
venison
fish (boneless precooked)
tuna
black beans
coconut
sauerkraut
tofu
almonds
Brazil nuts
cashews
peanuts
pecans
pine nuts
poppy seeds
pumpkin seeds
sesame seeds
sunflower seeds
walnuts
eggs

Seasonings:
garlic
chili powder
fresh herbs
pepper
salt
soy sauce
BBQ sauce
ranch dressing packet
Lawry's season salt
Montreal steak seasoning
Mrs. dash
Italian seasoning
dried herbs (basil, oregano, etc.)

Batter Mixes:
corn bread
biscuits
focaccia bread
fry bread
pizza dough
herb breads
our dough
beer batter bread
cookie dough
brownies
scones

Chicken and Dumplings Bakeover

My first Bakeover

Sauteing sliced carrots, potatoes, onion, a tbsp of flour in some butter, herbs and a bit of chicken broth to make a little sauce.

Added some leftover shredded chicken.

While it was sauteing, I made my whole wheat biscuit dough recipe and then placed it on top like a pie crust.

Into the oven it went. I think I did it at 350 degrees for about 20 min.

Out it came and I forked it to make sure it was cooked through.

Here we go...into a deep dish pie plate...I was worried about the sauce running everywhere but I could have done it on a flat platter because the sauce was all absorbed. (I think if you do this with fruit though it might run a little, I don't know...I'll try it soon.)

Hurray! It's out of the pan!

Serving up the first slice.

Look at that pie!

Fabulous lunch!

Chicken Enchiladas Verde

I showed you Chicken Enchiladas Verde in the crockpot so now I'm going to show you how to do them in the oven. You use the same seasonings and sauce as stated before. I like to use either leftover chicken, chicken I cooked in the crockpot with the seasonings or without that was all done ahead of time. That saves time when making these the day of. You can use either diced onion or dried onion flakes. If you use diced onion you need to cook the onion with the chicken ahead of time so that the onion is for sure cooked through.

Next, spray a 9x13 glass pan with olive oil (I always use First Cold Pressed Extra Virgin).

Put the sauce in a skillet and warm it to warm your tortillas-making them pliable.

Fill them with chicken and jack cheese (monterey, colby, whatever kind)

Roll them and top with cheese down the center.

Spray a piece of foil with olive oil so that it won't stick to your enchiladas and cover them.

Cook till heated through (350 degrees for about 45 min.)

Variations-

-you can do this exact thing with shredded beef

-you can use red enchilada sauce instead of green

-these do make a great freezer meal.

I'll show you the process in pictures.