Back of the Box!

One of my favorite things to do it try the recipes that are posted on the back or sides of my everyday groceries. I am not a real big breakfast eater. I mostly like breakfast food at other times than breakfast and my kids don't really like hot cereals but we were running out of ideas so I was going to make malt-o-meal. Low and behold the box has a recipe for muffins. I thought well I don't know if that would be good but what do we have to loose. So we tried them and....they were really really good and I even was tempted to make them again the next day! Moral of the story, read the box and try new things!



Malt-o-Meal Magic Muffins Catherine Style becomes

Malt-O-Meal Blueberry Muffins

1 1/4 cups of flour , 3/4 cup Original Malt-O-Meal, 1/2 cup of sugar, 3/4/ cup of milk, 1/4 cup vegetable oil, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla

and my own little touch about a half of carton of blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Stir together until all ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into greased or paper-lined muffin pans, filling cups about 3/4 cups full. (Batter will be thick) Bake for 18-20 minutes or until center is firm to the touch.

Strawberries

One of my favorite things to eat is strawberries. I am just a plain and simple kinda gal so I usually wash them and dip them in sugar and eat them! So very yummy but so not healthily =) But there are so may different ways to use strawberries here is a couple of my favorites. Also this time a years there are a lots of sales on strawberries due to Mothers Day and other holidays so hunt around for good deals. Safeway had them on sale for 2 for $3.00.

For all my local friends if you had the pleasure of eating at Taverna before it went out of business they had on their menu a salad called the Strawberry salad which my husband loved. He was very disappointed when the restaurant went out of business and the salad was no longer. We tried to replicate it a few times with no success however I was looking at my favorite coupon site which also post recipes once a week for things on salad and wouldn't ya know a recipe for strawberry salad! I made the salad and it was just like the restaurant and dare I say maybe better =) I have done some tweaking to it by adding more strawberries and less dressing more cheese and nuts because well its the best part and here you go one of the best salads you will ever eat!! Know I am not much of a meat eater but my husband likes chicken in his, I think just about any protein would be good but I liked it just plain and simple.

Strawberry Salad

1 romaine lettuce head
12 strawberries sliced
1 small apple cubed
1/2 cup feta cheese

1/2 cup Craisins

1/2 to 1 cup of toasted almonds ( I used slivered)

Poppy Seed Dressing

1/2 sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup white vinegar

1 cup of oil (whatever you cook with)
1 tablespoon of poppy seeds

In a large bowl add salad ingredients. In a small bowl: whisk sugar, salt, vinegar, oil and poppy seeds until well blended. Toss into salad mixture and enjoy!! (I gave you the whole dressing recipe, I made it put it in a shaker and added about half which was plenty for me but if you think it needs more you will have the reserve, also it will keep if you want to have it on another salad in the next few weeks)

This is not my recipe but it was from the Krazy Coupon Lady's Krazy in the Kitchen

Strawberry Freezer Jam

4 cups of crushed strawberries

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 package of freezer jam pectin (Ball is the best)
Jars, Lids and Rings
Mix sugar and pectin together. Add to crushed strawberries and stir for three minutes. Ladle into containers and let stand for 30 minutes then freeze and enjoy!

If you have never made jelly or jam this is a good way to start and practice. I will post my jelly recipes during the summer after I have some produce to make stuff! I know you are bubbling in anticipation =)

In light of garden season I thought a vegetable recipe would be fun!

Steamed Whole Artichoke

1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cups of water 1 whole artichoke 1/4 cup melted butter Put the olive oil and water in a large pot and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, prepare artichoke by cutting off the stems close to the base. Pull off the tough, lower petals. Cut off the top inch of the artichoke. Trim off the thorny tips of the otter petals with kitchen shears. Place the artichoke in the simmering pot bottom up. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Artichoke is done when a knife inserted in the base meets no resistance. To eat, pull off leaves, and dip in the melted butter. Scrape off the tender part of the leaves with your front teeth. When you reach the center, remove the prickly purple leaves and the fluffy thistle layer that covers the disc shaped and delicious artichoke heart. (I forget this step and we keep looking at it like where is the heart. It was under the hairy part =) My son Aaron even liked it and ate like 10 leaves

Garden Time

Garden time has arrived! I am lucky enough to have friends with a open area that i can use for gardening, however I know what its like to have no space to do so. I cam across a really fun article that thought that i would share for my friends without space or who are always on the go.

Container Gardens!

1st Establish it. Use anything that hold soil as a container-Terra-cotta or plastic pots, window boxes, concrete planters, even hanging baskets, just make sure that they have holes in the bottom for the watter to drain out. Also try to stay away from dark colored planters as they tend to get very hot in the summer which causes the roots to dry out.

2nd Get Growing! Choose containers large enough to hold your plants. For example tomatoes need a deep 5 gallon pot. There is a web site called all-about-planters.com that can answer questions about sizes of pots. Before filling a container cover the bottom with a coffee filter or a broken clay pot to allow water to drain without losing your soil. Container plants need more frequent watering than ones in the ground, so water once a day in the summer or more frequently if the soil feels dry. Keep watering until water runs from the bottom. If the sun requires full sunlight rotate the container throughout the day.

3rd Add water and light. Different plants need different amounts of water and light, so if you decide to group several together make sure they have the same requirements.

Because container gardens grow close together, they are at a grater risk of disease. Remove dead foliage and watch for signs of fungus and pests. If you suspect disease there is a product at Lowe's called garden safe fungicide that kills fungus, mites and insects. Or a more natural and probably less expensive remedy is to soak a bar of soap in two cups of water overnight. After removing the bar, put the mixture in a spray bottle with a 1/4 cup of corn oil, shake and spray to infected leaves.

-Article found in the All you magazine April 2011

Early spring is the best time to plant Lettuce, Carrots, Peas, Broccoli, Spinach and Beets!

Crepes

CREPES

So I love Crepes and people always say they are so hard to make but they really are not. I think they sound scary because they are a specialty item that people tend to only have on a special occasion and usually for dessert or breakfast. So today we are going to showcase two crepe recipes from two of my favorite people. First of all my mom is a great cook and it is hard to copy anything that she makes. One of my most favorite things that she makes is called Chicken Crepes. I used to ask her to make them for all special occasions and any boy that I took to a girl ask guy dance ate them. =) So When I got older and married I decided to try making them. The first time was a disaster! My sauce was to runny and my cheese didn't melt and although Mike was a good sport they tasted really bad! So I waited a few years kept cooking and trying new things and decided to try my hand at them again. They came out much better and dare I say close to my Moms cause nothing is better than hers! =) So I tried some variations, made some veggies ones and Breakfast Crepes. The trick to making a good crepe is to have a very HOT pan with a little oil and the trick is to not give up after the first one because the first one always turns out bad (at least in my experience). There is really no wrong way to stuff a crepe, be creative! This is my challenge to you this week, be brave, make a crepe and be creative! I will list two different crepes batter recipes one is my moms and one came from Mikes family cookbook by Lisa Rosser. I personally use Lisa's because my moms never turned out for me but try them both and see what one works for you.

Crepes

Moms Recipe

3/4 cup flour

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup evaporated milk

Put everything in the blender and blend for 30 seconds. Cover, let stand in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to 1 hour. Use a crepe pan or a small frying pan and put enough oil in to cover the bottom of the pan. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter or less into hot pan. Pickup pan and tilt to all sides so that the batter will cover the whole bottom. Brown on both sides.

Crepes

Lisa's Rosser

This makes about 6 I usually double the recipe
3/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup of milk

2 eggs

1/3 cup of water

Blend together in the blender or in a mixing bowl. (I use the blender) Put in the fridge for 30 minutes. Use a non-stick pan and put a small amount of oil in while pan is heating. Very important that pan be very hot. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter, enough to cover the pan. Pickup pan and tilt so that bottom is covered. Brown on both sides.

It should flip right over. It it doesn't pan is not hot enough or there is not enough oil. Don't give up keep trying, it is a little frustrating at first but you will feel a sense of accomplishment when you have succeeded!

Chicken Crepes

Claudia Grange

This is really my favorite thing that you make. Thank you for all the hard of making it for every special occasion that I request. I love you =)

Make crepes using one on the above recipes. (my mom would say use her since this is her recipe =)

Creamed chicken:

2-3 chicken breasts

6 tablespoons of butter

5 table spoons of flour

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 cups of chicken broth

1 cup of heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon of salt

Colby Cheese, shredded

Boil chicken breast until tender. Save broth. When cooled enough go ahead and shred the chicken. Put the butter, flour, salt, pepper, broth and cream into a saucepan. Cook and stir until thick. Add the shredded chicken to the cream sauce. Lay out a crepe. Pour a good spoonful of the creamed chicken onto the crepe. I always put some shredded Colby cheese on top of the creamed chicken. Roll up the crepe and lay in a backing dish. Spread rest of cream on top and top with cheese. Bake at 350 oven for 35 minutes.

These are Mike's Strawberry Crepes
Makes about 6 crepes

Crepes made from a recipe above

Strawberries

4oz Cream Cheese

Sugar

powdered sugar

cool whip 1/2 tub

Redi Whip

Mash strawberries with a fork until small and juicy. Mix with desired amount of sugar to make sweet. Mix cream cheese and cool whip till smooth. Put cream cheese mixture on crepe, place strawberry mixture on top and fold over. Place Redi Whip on top and garnish with sliced strawberries. Fairly simple but very yummy!

Kid Tested and approved! He even had it in his hair =) Thats how I kow he liked something.

Cookie Cutters

For Valentine's Day this year we had Heart shaped meat loaves and mashed potato's for dinner. Very easy and very cute. I used a heart shaped cookie cutter to make the meat loaves, put them on Cookie sheets and baked them. A cookie cutter can be used for many different used not just for cookies. Your kids can use them while playing with play dough, shaping dough ornaments for any holiday, and any to shape any kind of ground meat or vegetable as kind of a fun way to get your kids to try new foods. It also transforms everyday food into something special without a lot of hard work! Happy Cooking everyone =)

Meatloaf

1 1/2 cups ground beef

1 cup of cracker crumbs (I used toll house crackers)

1 1/4 teaspoons of salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 large egg, beaten

1 medium onions, chopped

1/2 cup of tomato sauce

Topping

3/4 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup water

2 table spoons mustard (I used just regular yellow mustard)

2 tablespoons white vinegar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine ground beef, crackers, salt, pepper, egg, onion and tomato sauce. Mix lightly

Shape into loaf (or any cookie or free hand shape you like) and place in a baking dish. (For the shapes i placed them on a cookie sheet) In a small mixing bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar, water, mustard and vinegar. Brush the meatloaf with this mixture. Place meatloaf in oven and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, basting occasionally with sauce.

The Low Budget Wonder

This weeks feature ingredient is Ramen Noodles. OK before you turn up your nose and think wait am I back in college? hear me out. We have had a little money crunch this month and have had to get creative with whats for dinner, I was running out of ideas and was looking at the box of Ramen from Sam's and was thinking Mike would kill me if I actually fixed that for dinner. So I did a little research on my favorite recipe site food.com and found a few recipes that Were tried and tested not only by me but by my husband who hates ramen and I was given a thumbs up! So try if you want to but if you find yourself in a crunch these were really good!



Ramen Noodle Casserole


1 pound of ground beef


1 medium onion, diced


1 (14 1/2 ounce) can of diced tomatoes


3 (3 oz) packages of beef flavored ramen- I actually used chicken flavored because that is what we had and it tasted wonderful so if you don't have beef I'm sure any flavor will do


3 cups of water


Shredded Cheese (one to two cups)





Brown hamburger and onion, then add flavoring packets from ramen noodles and simmer for about 4 minutes.


Add the water and the tomatoes and bring to a boil


Then add ramen noodles and cook for about 4 minutes more


Pour into a casserole dish, sprayed or greased first, and cover with shredded cheese


Bake for about 15 minute3s or until cheese melts

Creamy Ramen Noodles

1 (3oz) package of ramen noodles, any flavor with seasoning packet

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons of butter

1/4 cup of milk

Bring water to a boil, add dried noodles and cook for 3 minutes or until noodles are tender, Stir occasionally. Drain water away, Return noodles to pan. Add butter and contents of seasoning packet. Add as much of the seasoning packet that you want ( I used the whole thing). Heat on low heat and stir until butter is melted and noodles are coated with creamy sauce.

Rotisserie Chicken

My feature ingredient for the week is the Rotisserie Chicken. First is can be eaten the traditional way with a side and a vegetable or it can be a great resource for the busy cook. It can be shredded or diced or sliced to accommodate almost any recipe and for a small cost. Depending on your family size it can be used for more than one meal. Here are three time saving and easy recipes for the Rotisserie Chicken.


One of my favorite places to eat is Red Brick Pizza and one of my favorite things to eat there is the BBQ chicken pizza. This is a good take out at home recipe at more than half the price

BBQ Chicken Pizza
1 rotisserie chicken shredded
1 bottle of BBQ sauce
1/2 onion thinly sliced (red is good but any kind will do)
Mozzarella Cheese
1 pizza crust (homemade or bought)

Spread out pizza crust on pan, add BBQ sauce ( I use about a half a bottle it really is up to how much sauce you like on your pizza)
Put shredded chicken on top of sauce (again as little or as much as you like I put a lot)
Add thinly sliced onion (i cut my onion slices in half) add as much or as little as you like
Top with cheese
Cook for about 15-20 minutes depending on how dark you like your crust and how thick your crust is
Cut and enjoy

Second recipe for the week is Chicken Noodle Soup. I love soup on a cold day, and nothing is better than grown up chicken noodle. This is what I call the cheater Grown up Chicken Noodle Soup

Cheater Grown up Chicken Noodle
Leftover Rotisserie Chicken or any cut up chicken (i like shredded)
Celery
Carrots
Noodles
Chicken Broth (I do about 4 to 8 cuts of broth depending on family size you can adjust)
Any other vegetables that you have or really like it doesn't matter, the more veggies the better
Salt and Pepper (use little salt because chick stock or broth is already salty)

Mix all ingredients together except the noodles, bring to a boil, let simmer for about 10 minutes or until vegetable are tender. Add noodles, cook until noodles are soft about 10 minutes. Serve warm. Its good with bread or just by itself

3rd Recipe for the week is Hawaiian Haystacks. One of my favorites because it is so easy to make and everyone can put what they like on it.

Hawaiian Haystacks
leftover chicken shredded or cubed
Cooked rice about 2 cups for a family of 4 ( I like jasmine rice but any rice will do)
chicken gravy
Toppings:
coconut
Pineapple
green onions
cheese
(really anything you can think of the sky is the limit) =)

Cook rice and gravy according to package directions, warm chicken
Put rice on plate, add chicken and gravy
add toppings, I like to put my toppings in small bowls or paper cups for easy clean up and throw away. A muffin tin works good also so all your toppings are in one place and easy to get to