Annie's Birthday Dinner

So this meal was certainly not catered to fit the likes of children. There were only two and at their age their main interest is not eating, so why fuss! And as far as difficulty, the whole menu was pretty fuss free...mostly dump, stir, and set it and forget it :)

Here's what we had...

1. Salad
2. Baked Brie en Brioche served with crackers
3. BBQ Cocktail Weiners
4. Taco Soup
5. Flower Cupcake Cake (and just realized as I was typing we forgot to serve some ice cream!!)
6. And to drink...hot apple cider

Baked Brie en Croute

What a yummie appetizer! A crowd-pleaser any day.

1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
1 wheel of brie
1 egg, lightly beaten
Any kind of fruit preserves (I used strawberry)

Roll out puff pastry to about 12x12 inches. Place wheel in center of puff pastry. Trim corners to make somewhat a circle, leaving about 4 inches or so around the wheel. Brush edges of puff pastry with egg. Fold puff pastry over top of wheel pulling back a little the puff pastry near the top (the excess pastry should make a little cup at the top to place filling in later). Brush exterior of pastry with the egg. Freeze for ~20 minutes (I didn't do this b/c I didn't have time...not sure if this step makes the pastry more flaky). Bake in a pre-heated 425 deg oven for about 20-25 minutes until pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven and place in center of pastry opening. Let cool a little bit before serving.

From the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

BBQ Cocktail Weiners

This is an easy side/appetizer and I figured Annie would eat this if she didn't want the main course.

1 package of cocktail weiners
~1/2 c. BBQ Sauce
~1/2 c. grape jelly
~1/4 t. garlic powder, optional

Combine all ingredients in a small crock pot (we have a 3 qt.). Give a little stir. Cook on low for about 2 hours. Yum!

Taco Soup

And for the main course of the evening...

Taco Soup (from the kitchen of Paula Deen)

Here are the few changes we made (and it's a good thing we did, because all the ingredients probably wouldn't fit in our 4 qt. crockpot).

1. We went with less beef (probably about a 1.5 lbs.)
2. 1/2 the amount of onions
3. Only 1 can of pinto beans
4. Replaced kidney beans with black beans
5. Used Italian tomatoes instead of Mexican (couldn't find them in Target)
6. No olives

I'm sure this would pare down nicely for less people.

One more note: Close all your bedroom doors! This soup can have a pretty meaty smell...yummy...but meaty.

Pumpkin Bread Recipes

YUM! We LOVE pumpkin bread in this house. Just can't seem to get enough of it, especially during the holidays. Here are some of our favorites:

Crane House Pumpkin Bread (minus the nuts and ESPECIALLY minus the raisins - ICK for cooked raisins)

Spiced Pumpkin Bread (made this for all the neighbors this year - mini-loaf style - SOOO CUTE!!)

Wholesale Food Picks

We love having the opportunity to buy wholesale. I think buying household paper products and cleaning supplies alone pay for our membership. I like to stick to my must-haves when we go there, but sometimes there’s just stuff there we can’t resist. And for this reason, I get scared when Alex goes there on his own because he never brings a list and it’s inevitable that he’ll bring home a huge tray of croissants, or muffins, or a HUGE slab of salmon, a four-pack of bacon…anything we can’t finish before it goes bad. Thanks to the dry Colorado climate we're able to buy many things in bulk without worrying about a lot of things like bugs, humidity, and freshness. Here is a list of staples we stick try to stick to.

1. Pasta (Whole wheat spaghetti or pasta variety)
2. Spaghetti Sauce
3. Sandwich bread
4. Butter
5. Cheddar cheese
6. Eggs
7. Chicken Breasts – I love these b/c they’re already in their vaccuum packed packages and I just pop them in and out of the freezer as needed.
8. Ground beef (the package that’s separted into patties b/c they’re ½ lb. each and we separate them and freeze them until we’re ready to cook it). The key to storing these is to take each patty, place it in a quart-sized ziploc bag, flatten out the patty, zip and freeze. You must flatten it out for ease of thawing when ready to do so.
9. Chicken Broth
10. Tomato Sauce
11. Canned Green Beans
12. Canned Corn

Chicken Alfredo

WARNING! By no means is this dish healthy for you! It's got heavy cream and butter. But what this dish is is YUMMY. Alex loves alfredo sauce and it's just as easy to make the sauce than it is to buy it in a jar.

1 lb. any type of pasta
1/2 c. butter (that's one stick - yikes!)
1 c. heavy cream (double yikes!!)
1 c. grated parmesan (~4 oz.)
Salt & Pepper
Chicken (optional)
Peas or broccoli (optional)

Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a large skillet, melt butter. Stir cooked pasta into butter. Add cream & parmesan. Toss over low heat until pasta is well coated and cheese is melted. Toss in chicken and peas and heat through.

Toaster Oven Chicken

This is my new hassle-free way of cooking chicken. I got the idea from this online recipe, but most of the time I just put salt and pepper.

Preheat toaster oven to 350 deg. Slice two chicken breasts to make thinner. Pat dry with paper towels. Season both sides of each piece with salt & pepper. In a rimmed baking dish, drizzle some olive oil to coat. Place chicken breasts in a single layer on dish. Drizzle more olive oil on top of each piece. Bake in toaster oven for 35 minutes until thickest piece is done. Remove from oven and let rest a few minutes before serving or putting into another dish.

Sweet Potato Crisp

I went to a potluck the other night and thought about what to bring. With my recent craving for sweet potatoes I happened to have about half a dozen sweet potatoes sitting in the fridge. Perfect! What a great way to get rid of them...but how? Pioneer Woman had the answer....Sweet Potatoes!! After making this I realized she had poorly named the recipe. Sweet Potatoes just wasn't enough. I'm adding Crisp to the end because that's pretty much what it is. And just an FYI: This is a very sweet sweet potato recipe. I think next time I may add less sugar.

Sweet Potato Crisp

4 whole Medium Sweet Potatoes
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Milk
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Pecans
½ cups Flour
¾ sticks Butter

Wash 4 medium sweet potatoes and bake them in a 375-degree oven until fork tender, about 30-35 minutes. When they are finished cooking slice them open and scrape out the flesh into a large bowl.

Add 1 cup of (regular grandulated) sugar, 1 cup of milk, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of salt. With a potato masher, mash them up just enough—you don’t want to be perfectly smooth.

Now, in a separate bowl, add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup pecans, chopped (that means measure a cup of pecans, then chop them), ½ cup flour, and ¾ stick of butter. With a pastry cutter or fork, mash together until thoroughly combined.

Spread the sweet potato mixture into a regular baking dish and sprinkle the crumb mixture all over the top.

Bake in a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Monkey Bread

I LOVE Monkey Bread!! Who could resist the ooey-gooey goodness of it?! This is the first time I've made it on my own and it was fantastic!! And the best part was that Annie helped me make it.

I'm sure most Monkey Bread recipes are all alike. I got this one from Pioneer Woman - love her blog!!

3 cans of Buttermilk Biscuits (the non-flaky ones)
1 c. sugar
2-3 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 sticks of butter (1 c.)

Preheat that oven to 350.

Open each can of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters.

In a gallon-sized seal-able bag, mix 1 c. sugar with cinnamon. Toss biscuit bites into the bag, seal, and shake until all bites are coated with sugar mixture. Place coated biscuit bites into 12-cup bundt pan and set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add the 1/2 c. brown sugar and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and pour over biscuit bites.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until top has a nice dark brown color to it. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15-30 minutes. Place a serving plate on top of the bundt cake pan and invert to remove the monkey bread from the pan. Enjoy!!

Peel this...

My current toddler distractions in the kitchen:

1. Peel this orange please
2. Peel the garlic cloves please
3. Peel this banand (although I rarely do this b/c I don't like bananas)
4. Don't peel anything, but wipe down the kitchen table with clean washcloth or wipey.

So I think I need a few more distraction techniques in the kitchen because peeling things is going to get pretty boring for her later. Please let me know if you have any ideas!

Potato Chip Clusters

Just made these today and they're just another addition to my sweet and salty collection. It's a recipe from my Taste of Home: Fun Food Magazine.

9 squares (1 oz. each) white baking chocolate

2 c. crushed potato chips

1/2 c. chopped pecans

In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt white chocolate. Sitr in potato chips and pecans. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate until set. Makes about 3 dozen.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

I don't know if it's because it's the holidays, or if it's because the little person inside of me is making me crave them, but lately I've had a thing for sweet potatoes. Mmmmm...I get excited just thinking about them...I know...sad. But it's true. So what's my solution for this strange addiction I've been having? It's SIMPLE...Baked Sweet Potatoes.

Wash and scrub some sweet potatoes and dry them. Poke them with a fork all over. Pop them in a oven at 425 deg for about an hour until soft. Cut a slit in them and pinch in the sides to fluff. It's that easy!

But a plain baked sweet potato may leave much to be desired. My desire...a little bit of butter and cinnamon sugar to taste. YUM!

Cinnamon Stove Top Granola

We had oatmeal for breakfast this morning and thought, mmmmmm....granola. So my Google results returned this recipe:

Cinnamon Stove Top Granola

Best part for me was no baking!! Perfect because our oven has been broken for the last several months. I know...you wonder how we've gone this far through fall and winter without an oven...easy...$30 Black & Decker toaster oven from Walmart.

Chicken Tikka Masala

I got this meal idea from Emily. THANKS EMILY!! She recommended it to me because it was fast, simple, requires no measuring, cheap, and sooooooo tasty. She knows me so well :)

Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Chicken breasts, diced to bite-size pieces
Garam Masala seasoning (mix of cardamom, cinnamon, cumin and coriander)
Jar of Tikka Masala Sauce

Heat oil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and season with garam masala, salt and pepper. Brown chicken and cook through. Add tikka masala sauce. Serve over rice or along side some naan (flat bread).

I got all the ingredients from Target. In case you're looking, I found the naan in the bakery section, not the bread. I loved the garam masala because it added serious flavor to the chicken. And for the sauce I used the Patak brand. Later I found out that the sauce had all natural ingredients - meaning pronounceable and recognizable ingredients! I found some recipes to make tikka masala sauce from scratch...maybe someday I'll try them, but for now I really like the ease of opening a jar and pouring it right in. This dish (minus the rice cooking time) took me less than 10 minutes to make.

I know, I know

I know...pictureless posts are a drag. I wish I could take pictures of my food with my awesome new camera, but considering the time of day I actually cook my food and the lack of natural light in my house makes it hard. No amount of flash can do the food justice. Perhaps when I repeat some of these dishes, I'll have better luck and update the posts later. But for now you'll just have to trust me :)

Albondigas Soup

We love this soup three ways:
1. from 3 Margaritas
2. from Auntie Barbara
3. this way:

Grandma Salazar's Albondigas Soup

This is a Cooking Light recipe, so when it gives you the directions on cooking the meatballs, it uses cooking spray. I found this to be a complete mess b/c the meatballs kept sticking to the pan. I gave up and just used veggie oil and ended up completely satisfied.

By the way, this is not a quick meal...so plan ahead.

Onion Baked Salmon

This is a super easy dish that I got from my Uncle Ricky. They say you should never trust a skinny chef, so you can TOTALLY trust Uncle Ricky :) The best part is you don't have to measure anything!!


Salmon Fillets
Mayonnaise (low-fat if you like)
Lipton Onion Soup Mix

Preheat oven to 375 deg. Line baking dish with foil and arrange fillets in a single layer. Spread some mayonnaise on the top side of each fillet (less for crispy onions, more for moist onions). Sprinkle each fillet with the onion soup mix. Bake for 15-20 minutes until fish flakes with a fork. Enjoy!

Italian Meatballs

We kind of got tired of the same old spaghetti and meat sauce but didn't really want to sacrifice cost. So the new twist was meatballs, but we've never been really satisfied with the frozen ones we usually get from Costco. Instead we tried the homemade stuff which was much better. The only sacrifice here is it takes just a little longer to cook. The recipe we used was for Mama Iuliucci's Famous Meat-a-balls.

Let me know if you have/find a good recipe for Italian meatballs. We're always up for trying something different. For now, we might stick with this recipe and may try it with the Italian Spaghetti Sauce recipe Grandma Googie gave us.

Note: I didn't feel like frying anything and since it was soooooo cold, we baked them on a broiling rack (so the fat could drip away) at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

French Toast Souffle

This is pretty easy to make and it's one you can make ahead of time. Thanks Emily!

French Toast Souffle

Easy Chicken Chili

This is another one of those meals we make with Rotisserie Chicken that is super tasty. It's a pretty quick meal and low fat, too! I got it from my Betty Crocker: Simple Winter Meals Magazine.

Ingredients
1 T olive oil or veggie oil
1 medium onion, chopped (~1/2 c)
1/2 c chopped red bell pepper
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
1 c water
2 c diced rotisserie chicken
2 cans (15.5 oz each) great northern beans, drained, rinsed
1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles, undrained
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 c sour cream, if desired
Chopped fresh cilantro, if desired

In 4 qt. saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender.

Stir in soup, broth and water. Cook 1 to 2 minutes, sirring frequently, until smooth and well blended. Stir in chicken, beans, chiles, oregano and cumin. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to medium-low. Cook uncovered 10 to 15 minutes, sirring occasionally, until thoroughly heated.

Top each serving with sour cream and cilantro.

Notes:
-You could cook your own chicken, but why bother?
-You can substitute the fresh bell pepper and onion with 1 c frozen bell pepper and onion stir-fry. I like this idea b/c bell peppers are cheaper frozen and in this soup you don't notice the difference.
-I've made this soup without certain ingredients (i.e. rotisserie chicken, only one can of beans) and it still comes out fine. In fact, we (Alex and I) agree it's way better with one less can of beans and maybe just one cup of rotisserie chicken.

Pavo Panini

Lagarto’s is one of my favorite restaurants. Their panini’s are THE best. Sadly, I hear they are closing in the near future because the rent is too high. This is surprising to me because every time I’ve been there it’s been busy. Hopefully they won't completely close and will find another location. Anyway, one of my favorite paninis there is called the Pavo. I’ve made it at home and it's pretty close.

If you don’t have a panini grill, you can just to what I do, use two heavy skillets. One skillet not heavy enough? Stack the second one with a couple cans of tuna :)

Pavo Panini

Pesto Sauce (Preferrably home-made – I made a sauce using almonds instead of pine nuts because I had them already on-hand and they’re cheaper)
Cranberry Sauce (I used canned and jellied sauce)
Oven roasted turkey breast
Brie cheese, sliced
Focaccia bread, halved

Heat the grill or skillet medium-low to medium.

Generously spread some pesto sauce on one half of the bread. Generously spread some cranberry sauce on the other half of the bread. Layer a few slices of turkey breast and the cheese between the bread slices.

Place the sandwich on the grill and press. Heat until bread is toasted and cheese is melted.

If using two skillets, place the sandwich on the heated skillet and top the sandwich with the other skillet. If the sandwich doesn’t get pressed down, weigh down the second skillet with a couple of cans (tuna works well – they have a low center of gravity :)). Flip the sandwich over to toast both sides.

Sometimes, if I can't grill my sandwich fresh, I'll just eat it un-heated, which is also yummie.

Enjoy!!!

New Recipes

In the last couple of days I've been showered with tons or recipes. I can't wait to try some of them. Thanks everyone!!!

Grilled Veggie Sandwiches

Ok....these are our new favorite sandwiches...no lie!

Grilled Veggie Sandwiches

And to make Alex a little happier, next time we have these I'm going to add some oven roasted turkey breast with it. I'm sure he's not alone when he's not fully satisfied with just veggies in his sammy.

Enjoy!

One More Quick One

Since coming back from our vaca, it seems we've been too busy to make a yummie, healthy meal. So our menu has been an array of meals from our Cheap and Quick Meals list. And as I was going through the list, I forgot one:

Classic Tuna Melts (canned tuna, mayo, a little bit of cajun seasoning (preferrably Tony's), cheddar cheese on grilled sandwich bread...yum!).

Our Louisiana Must-Eats

• Boiled Crawfish - our new favorite place to get them from is Salvo's in Belle Chasse (too bad it's a little far)
• Tony's Seafood Market
• Cane's - "I'd like a Caniac Combo, no slaw, extra toast, extra sauce, and lemonade."
• Boiled Crawfish
• Middendorf's - the small special, thin-fried catfish
• Sweet Tea, please!
• Larb - from Thai Kitchen
• Boiled Crawfish
• Boiled peanuts!
• Muffaletta - only the original, from Central Grocery store in the French Quarter
• Chicken Caesar Salade and Strawberries Romanoff - La Madeline's
• Cafe du'Monde beignet - not the most appetizing, but you gotta anyways
• Eddie's Frozen Custard - this is a new one for us
• Snowballs - stuffed or love nest style (meaning layer flavored shaved ice with ice cream...heaven!)
• Boiled Crawfish - did I mention this already?

Pecan Pie Coffee Cake

Another cell phone picture....arghhh!

A co-worker of mine brought this to work and shared the recipe. We've made it a ton of times. And this time, I've made it for our neighbors who just has a baby (to go with some lasagna). So we won't enjoy it tonight, but it's sooooo easy I'll probably just make another one later.

Pecan Pie Coffee Cake

3/4 c. sugar

3 T. butter, softened

2 oz. low-fat cream cheese, room temperature (I just use regular cream cheese)

1 egg

1 egg white

1 t. vanilla

1 1/4 c. flour

1/2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

3/4 c. non-fat buttermilk (I just use low-fat b/c that the only kind I can find at the grocery store)

Cooking Spray

Topping:

1/3 c. corn syrup

1/4 c. packed brown sugar

2 T. butter

1/3 c. pecans, finely chopped (I use way more than this, more like 1 1/3 c. because it adds a nice layer on top. 1/3 c. doesn't cover it...literally)

1 egg, beaten

In a large bowl, cream together sugar, 3 T. butter and cream cheese. Add egg and egg white one at a time until well mixed. Stir in vanilla. In medium mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture. Pour batter into a 9 inch spring form pan coated with cooking spray. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare topping by combining syrup, brown sugar and 2 T. butter in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Whisk in pecans and beaten egg. Poke holes in top of the warm cake and pour topping on top of cake. Bake an additional 10 minutes at 325 degrees. Cool cake on wire rack. Before attempting to remove from the pan, loosen sides with a knife. Enjoy!

By the way, this recipe is from Cooking Light

Cake Pops Never Fail

You gotta love these cake pops from Bakerella. I made these for Annie's first birthday and again for my friend's baby shower. The first time I made them I followed Bakerella's directions down to each detail. This time around I made them about half the size with less frosting for easier handling. Can you say YUM!!

Laura Bush Cowboy Cookies

Forgive me for the picture. This is the best I can do with my cell phone.

Everything yummy that can go into a cookie is in this one. It's got pecans, chocolate chips, oatmeal, and (my fave) coconut flakes. I like to make these cookies when Alex is around because he can mix in the pecans, chocolate chips, oatmeal and coconut flakes a lot more easily than I could (these are pretty beefy cookies when it comes to the throw-ins).

3 c. all purpose flour (if at high altitude and 1/2 cup more flour)
1 T. baking powder
1 T. baking soda
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 t. salt
1 1/2 c. (3 sticks), butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 T. vanilla extract
3 c. chocolate chips
3 c. old fashioned rolled oats
2 c. sweetened coconut flakes
2 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl.

In an 8-qt. bowl, beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 1 minute. Gradually beat in sugars; beat to combine, 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla extract.

Sir in flour mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chips, oats, coconut and pecans.

For each cookie, drop 1/4 c. dough onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing them 3 inches apart. Bake for 15 minutes until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through cooking time. Remove cookies to rack to cool.

Rotisserie Chicken

We love Rotisserie Chicken from the grocery store. For $5 you can make at least two quick tasty meals out of it. These are the ways we usually have it:

• By itself, served with a side of veggies and maybe some potatoes
• In a sandwich
• Chicken salad - shredded, mixed with a little mayo and tossed with other goodies, like almonds and craisins
• Chicken pasta salad - tossed with pasta
• Chicken soup - with veggies, broth and seasoning
• In any recipe that calls for cooked chicken

If you do something different with your chicken, let me know. I'm always up for new ideas :)

Sloppy Joes

1 T. vegetable oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 t. chili powder
3/4 lb. ground beef
1 t. brown sugar
Salt and Pepper
1 c. tomato puree
1/2 c. ketchup
1/4 c. water
Tabasco
4 hamburger buns

Heat the oil in a skillet over med-hi heat. Add onion and cook until lightly browned (~5 minutes). Add garlic and chili and cook for ~1 minute. Add beef, sugar, 1/4 t. salt, 1/3 t. pepper. Reduce heat to medium and cook until no longer pink (~4 minutes). Stir in tomato puree, ketchup and water. Cook until thickened (~5 minutes). Season with Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste.

Sometimes it tastes a little too tart for me, so I add about a two rounded teaspoons more of brown sugar in the end.

Also, we don't eat them sandwich style. Instead we eat them open faced for more filling and less sloppy. I guess you could just call is Joe-style. Hah!

From The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Cheap and Quick Meals

By no means are these meals super healthy. We just make them when we want to cut down on cost or time.

• Spam and Rice - Fry the Spam in a skillet and serve with rice. We also eat it with a side of peas :)
• Quesadillas - We always have cheddar on hand and like to add whatever meat we can, whether it be sandwich meat or leftovers.
• Mungo - Mung beans flavored with chicken broth and sauteed onions and garlic. This is something I grew up on and I love it. Annie likes it now, too. You could call it the Filipino version of Red Beans and Rice.
• Spaghetti and Meat Sauce - this is Annie's fave.
  Corned Beef and Rice - similar to Spam and Rice. You've gotta love meat from a can (or not).
• Ground Beef and Green Beans - From Grandma Mary's kitchen. Brown the beef, add a can of tomato sauce and a can of green beans. Season it with whatever you want and serve over rice. Yum!
• Fried Rice - Must have day old rice and garlic. Throw anything else you want in there.
• Chicken Salad with dried fruit - Shredded or chopped leftover or rotisserie chicken with dried cranberries, sliced almonds, and a little bit of mayo. Serve over a bed of greens or in a sandwich.
• Chicken Pasta Salad - Just like the one listed above without the almonds and cranberries and with the rainbow rotini pasta. I've even used canned chicken before (that's when I'm real lazy). I like to throw in some frozen peas as well.

Spring Fling Cake

To commence sweets eating, I thought I'd begin with a Spring Fling Cake. I got the idea from my officemate whose wife made it. He showed me pictures of what it looked like and I thought it looked soooooo beautiful - the perfect welcome-back-I've-missed-you-come-and-get-it dessert. The recipe is on the internet and is supposed to be the recipe for the Spring Fling Cake served at The Market Coffee Shop in Larimer Square in Downtown Denver.

A few notes:

- I'd keep the middle layer of fruit to a minimum. I think I went overboard and the filling had a hard time saying in the middle. After a little car ride I found that part of the filling has slipped out.

- At the recommendation of my officemate, I doubled the frosting. I actually forgot to double the amount of powdered sugar, but it turned out perfect - not too sweet. The recipe only directs you to frost the in between and top of the cake, but I just did the whole thing.

- I sliced the kiwi and strawberries with an egg slicer. This made for even slices.

- Next time I'll arrange the fruit on the top better, such that the slices overlap more.

- The cake texture, once baked, is more like a muffin texture (not as firm as bread, but not as firm as cake). I bet they'd be just as yummie as cupcakes.

Spring Fling Cake

For the cake:

2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
5 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (for frosting)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt

For frosting:
3/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

Fruit for cake:
1 pint strawberries, cleaned, stemmed and sliced
4 kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced
2 mangoes, peeled and sliced
1 pint blueberries
Apricot glaze, or apricot jelly thinned out with a bit of warm water, optional

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch cake.

• To prepare the cake: Shred the zucchini in a food processor. In a large mixing bowl combine shredded zucchini, eggs, sugar, oil, sour cream and ½ tablespoon vanilla.

• When thoroughly mixed, combine all dry ingredients and add to bowl; mix well. Batter should be fairly wet and easy to pour.

• Pour in the batter and bake for 50 to 70 minutes, testing with a toothpick in center.

• Cool finished cake on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove it from the pan and allow it to cool completely. (You can make the cake a day ahead and refrigerate.)

• To prepare frosting, whip room temperature cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing until well combined.

• In a separate bowl, whip the cream until stiff, and then fold it and the ½ teaspoon vanilla into the frosting. Do not overmix.

• To assemble cake: Cut the cooled cake in half lengthwise, making two layers. (The Market cuts the cake into three layers, which you may do if desired.)

• Spread an even layer of frosting over the first layer, and then add a layer of the various fruit pieces (repeat if three layers).

• Put on the top layer of cake and evenly frost. The sides of the cake are not frosted; use extra to fill in, as needed.

• Arrange the fruit in circles all over the top of cake, slightly overlapping fruit pieces.

• To finish: Spread the apricot glaze over fruit on top of the cake with a pastry brush.

Easy Cheesy Garlic Drop Biscuits

We had some for breakfast this morning. It was too cold for cold cereal, we're out of eggs, and we're tired of oatmeal. Good thing we keep a box of Bisquick around!

So the recipe for Cheesy Garlic Biscuits on the box is good, but sometimes end up a little too dry and don't offer enough flavor. So I changed it a little bit :)

I mixed 2 cups of Bisquick, about 1 c (maybe a little more) of shredded cheddar cheese, 2/3 cups of milk, about 1/2 tsp of garlic powder, and about 3 tbsp of cold butter that was chopped up into about 1/4 inch cubes. I mixed it all together until I didn't see any more dry mix. Then I dropped the dough by about 1/2 c. spoonfools onto a foil lined baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. I baked them in a 450 deg preheated oven for 8 minutes.

We don't have a good enough camera to show the pockets of stringy melted cheese when you break the biscuits in half. YUM!

Popcorn and Junior Mints

Speaking of popcorn, here's another one of our FAVORITES!!


The marriage of hot buttered popcorn and junior mints fits in the same category of peanut butter and chocolate, cookies and cream, and Wendy's fries and Frosty's. My mouth waters just thinking about them.


My friend Jennifer introduced me to this when we were kids. On movie dates, her parents would share a bowl of popcorn and junior mints for a romantic snack. For you men out there, this is THE way to woooo a girl. Go for it!


All you have to do is pop a bag of popcorn, put it in a bowl, and while it's still hot sprinkle some Junior Mints on top. Give the bowl a little jiggle to unleash the mints into the salty butteriness. When you reach in, you'll find ooey-gooey morsels of mint and popcorn.


If you want to get a little more adventurous, try melting the mints in a microwave-safe container until melted. Then pour over the popped popcorn. Now you'll have ribbons of chocolate-minty bliss spread across buttery goodness. YUM!

Peanut Butter Popcorn

So what better snack to have during a Spring blizzard than Peanut Butter Popcorn?

Pop enough popcorn to make 2 quarts (about 2 3-oz. bags)

Cook to a rolling boil:
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. light corn syrup or honey (I've never tried the honey)

Remove from heat and add:
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 t. vanilla

Pour over popcorn, stirring to coat.


My sister-in-law, Julie, shared this recipe with me from More-With-Less cookbook. This is a favorite for movies, snacking, camping, or anytime - like a blizzard!

Don't be deceived. They look gooey and sticky, but they're not!

Zucchini Soup

We love this soup! And it's even better when you use the zucchini from your backyard. I put a little bit of crumbled bacon for a little salty crunch!

Ingredients:

3 T. butter

3 medium onions, sliced thin

2 cloves garlic, crushed

26 oz. chicken broth

4 medium zucchini, sliced thin

2 stalks celery and leaves, sliced thin

1 T. minced parsley

1 t. salt

1/2 t. each of dried dill, crushed basil, and ground pepper

1 c. milk, add before serving

Heat butter in a skillet and saute the onion and garlic, but do not brown. In a large soup kettle, combine chicken broth, zucchini, celery, parsley, and seasonings. Stir in the onion mixture. Bring to a boil then lower heat and for simmer 30 minutes.

Blend the veggies in batches in a blender until all of the soup is blended. Return to the soup kettle and stir in milk. Heat through. Serve hot or cold.

Broccoli, spinach, or cauliflower may be substituted for the zucchini.

Pan Fried Tilapia with White Wine and Capers

This dish reminds me of my favorite dish from Johnny Carino's. I actually think it was taken off the menu, but Alex assures me that this is a repeat dish in our house.

It's a very forgiving recipe. Annie always wants to be held whenever I need to make dinner so I hardly ever measure anything. You'll notice hardly any of my posts require baking which requires a certain degree of accuracy.

I made a few additions to the recipe to make it more like Johnny Carino's. I added a few sliced black olives (canned) and some green olives and pimentos (from a jar) to the wine mixture. I also served it over angel hair pasta. And lastly, I didn't use parsley.

20 min

1/4 c. dry white wine

1/4 c. tomato (chopped and seeded)

2 T. fresh lemon juice

2 T. capers (drained)

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 t. dried basil

4 tilapia fillets (6-ouces each)

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. fresh ground black pepper

1/4 c all-purpose flour

cooking spray

1 T. olive oil

2 T. butter

2 T. parsley

1 lemon (cut into wedges, optional)

Combine the first 6 ingredients, stirring well. Set aside.

Sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper. Dredge fillets lightly in flour, and coat both sides of fillets with cooking spray.

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over med-high heat. Add fillets; cook 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; turn fillets, and cook 3 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Remove from pan.

Add wine mixture to pan; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in butter until melted. Spoon wine mixture over fillets; sprinkle with parsley. Serve with lemon wedges, if desired.

Light Chicken Parmesan

We like this breaded chicken. This can be served with some marinara sauce over it with cheese melted on it. Or you can eat it by itself like we usually do. I like to cut the chicken into smaller pieces, almost nugget size.

1 1/2 c. bread crembs

1 T. olive oil

1 oz. (~1/2 c.) grated parmesan

1/2 c. flour

1 1/2 t. garlic powder

Salt & Pepper

1 egg

Cooking spray

Chicken Breasts

Preheat oven to 475 degrees F. Toast bread crumbs in oil until golden (~10 min.). Cool crumbs slightly, then stir in parmesan.

In a second dish, combine flour, garlic powder, 1 T. salt, and 1/2 t. pepper.

In a third dish, whisk the egg.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, place a wire rack on top and spray rack with cooking spray. Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour lightly, dip in the egg and coat with the bread crumbs. Place the chicken on the rack. Spray the top of the chicken with cooking spray. Bake approximately 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Spicy Romano Chicken

Back when Alex and I used to eat out often, we loved going to Johnny Carino's. And one of my favorite dishes there was the Spicy Romano Chicken: Bowtie pasta, cayenne pepper romano cream sauce, artichokes, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and green onions. It has two of some of my favorite things, artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes! Turns out this dish is really easy to make. I made it using rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, without mushrooms and with Parmesan cheese instead. Here is the recipe courtesy of recipezaar.com.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cooked, thinly sliced)
1/2 cuo sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup diced green onion
1/8 cup sliced sun-dried tomato

alfredo sauce (made from your favorite recipe or from a jar)
1/4 cup grated romano cheese 1 (12 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
cayenne pepper
bow tie pasta, cooked

In pan melt butter, saute chicken, mushrooms, green onions, artichokes and sudried tomatoes until hot.

Add Alfredo sauce and Romano cheese. Simmer.

Add cayenne pepper to taste. Serve over bowtie pasta. ENJOY!

Bakerella is my Hero

Oh my goodness! This looks soooooooooo goooooooood!

http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2009/03/dining-out-dessert.html

But in the spirit of Lent I will refrain. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I will need all the help I can get.

Real Simple

Alex had dinner ready for when I got home and I wasn't at all disappointed. Yum!! Seasoned chicken, sauteed veggies, mashed sweet potatoes - Oh My! What a chef!!

Descope Project

Here's a before picture of one of our kitchen drawers...

Here's an after...

Ahhhh...Much better!


So this is one of my goals this year - to organize our house a little better and get rid of a lot of things we don't use.


I remember when I moved to Colorado I came here with a suitcase full of clothes, some bath towels, and a toaster - not kidding. All the times we moved, from apartment to apartment to apartment to apartment, and finally to our house, I couldn't believe the amount of junk we ended up collecting. And in some rooms of our house the clutter really shows. We not only have catch-all drawers, we have catch-all closets and catch-all rooms. Yikes!


In fact, part of my plan to create a clutter-free home is to work on the basement. I'm too embarrassed to show you the before pictures. Hopefully, when it's all over, I'll have a room to proudly show. Until then, these little projects will help me move along.


What I did - I got rid of a lot of kitchen utensils we no longer use and got dividers to give certain types of utensils a place of their own. So what do I do with the rest of them? Can you say garage sale?

Creamy Onion Dip

This dip is always yummy and super easy and today I'm bringing this to my monthly group play date since the mommies like to snack lightly. This is from my Better Homes and Gardens Easy Everyday Cooking Cookbook. It's a nice alternative to the usual veggie dip.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. sour cream
2 T. dry onion soup mix (Lipton is what I usually have)
1/2 c. crumbled blue cheese (~2 oz.)
Snipped parsley (optional)

In a medium mixing bowl stir together the sour cream and dryy onion soup mix. Stir in the blue cheese. Cover and chill up to 48 hours.

If desired, sprinkle with snipped parsley. Serve with veggies and crackers.

Makes about 1 3/4 c.

Chicken, Capers, and Garlic in a Butter Wine Sauce

This is one of our favorite meals for dinner. We got the idea for it from watching Lidia's Italy on PBS. She is one of our fave chefs and we hope to someday go to one of her restaurants (there's one in KC where are friends live). I missed the part of the episode where she actually named the dish, so the title of this recipe is basically what's in the dish. And when I say recipe, I mean that in the loose sense. We never wrote down all the ingredients or how much, so we kind of go by memory (surprising since I'm an engineer and a little bit of a control freak). Fortunately, we've made this dish enough times to have repeatability, not to mention the recipe is VERY forgiving.

Ingredients:

Chicken breast cutlets

Flour

Salt & Pepper (optional)

Olive oil

Garlic, sliced very thin

Capers

White Cooking Wine

Butter

Heat olive oil in large skillet or sauce pan over med-hi heat. Lightly salt and pepper the cutlets and lightly dredge them in the flour, shaking off excess flour. Cook chicken in oil until golden brown (if chicken sticks to pan when trying to flip over, it's probably not ready to turn). When second side of chicken is cooking add garlic and capers (I love capers so I put a couple spoonfools of them) to the skillet placing them in between the cutlets. When chicken is cooked through, you can remove the chicken from the pan and keep warm, but I just leave them in to keep from having to wash another dish). Add cooking wine to deglaze the pan and cook until reduced to half. I probably put 1 to 1 1/2 c of wine b/c we like ours saucy. Once reduced, add a tablespoon or so of butter and melt. Serve over cooked pasta.

The last time we had this for dinner we served it with some zucchini and yellow squash seasoned with pepper and sauteed in a little bit of butter. Yum!

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

This is by far one of the best recipes I have and it's been one that lots of people ask me about. It was given to me by one of my best friends, Jennifer, after she served it at my baby shower. It's sooooooo easy and takes almost no time to make. Bring it to a potluck and you will be the hit of the party!

Prep = 10 min., Cook = 15 min.
Makes 6 servings (~3 c.)

Ingredients:
1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 10 oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 c. mayonnaise
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 1/2 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Preheat oven to 350 deg. Lightly grease a 1 qt. baking dish. In a medium bowl, mix together artichoke hearts, spinach, mayo, Parmesan cheese and 2 c. Monterey Jack cheese. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining Monterey Jack cheese. Bake in the center of the preheated oven until the cheese is melted, about 15 minutes (I sometimes bake it a little longer until the top starts to brown and caramelize a little bit - YUM!)

Serve with your favorite dippers. I like it with blue corn chips.

Meal Planning

So when Alex and I were dating and when we were first married, we'd go out to eat all the time. I kid you not - sometimes 6 sometimes 7 times a week. Luckily, during that time we both had full-time jobs and lots of time to exercise. Nowadays, that's not the case. So meal planning has saved us and helped us prioritize things a lot more.

Create a Menu

Get inputs - We basically stick to a week long meal plan which only consists of meals for dinner - breakfast and lunch are almost always done on the fly. If Alex isn't available to give me inputs for what meals we want to have, I always have him approve the list when I'm done - although I am sometimes married to a garbage disposal I would rather him be ok with the menu than grimmace and eat.

Get Kitchen Inventory - While I'm making the list, I survey the the cabinets (we don't have a pantry - Argh!) and the fridge for items we already have and items we need (i.e. milk, cheese, eggs, etc.). From there I start to get ideas of what kind of meals we can make.

Create Schedule - I order the meals according to who likes what best so that that person can eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. This works so well for us and our work schedules. The meal of the day is also determined by what's in the fridge and what will go bad first. This is probably a no brainer.

Get Weekly Groceries

Make a list according to you kitchen inventory - The menu for the week should give you an idea of what you'll need from the store. By only going to the grocery store with the items you know you'll need has saved us a lot of money.

Plan on using extras - Sometimes you can only get certain things at the store that are too much for one meal (i.e. vegetables, a whole baguette). If I need only half of an ingredient for a meal, rather than making the meal bigger, I just plan another meal with the same ingredient.

Shop the ads - We try to only go shopping one day a week and I typically try to wait until the weekly grocery ads have been mailed to us. This also helps in deciding what we'll have on the menu. We make sure we get the best deals by comparing what's available at different stores.

Coupons - Use them if you have the time to clip them. We frequently use Costco coupons.

Change it up

Be flexible - Sometimes we get lazy so we don't follow the meal plan exactly.

Try a new recipe - Cooking the same meals gets boring so we try to make something new once a week or so.

Treat yourself - Go out to eat once in a while. Cooking at home can be a drag. And who wants to do dishes all the time? Not me. That is my least favorite chore. Lately we've been going to Taco Tues. at a local place here. Yum!

More Tips

Fit your meals into your budget - Sometimes during the month we have to make some pretty hefty purchases like plane tickets, and this month, a car seat. So many of our meals have been on the cheap side - like spam and rice, corn beef on rice, mac and cheese (with spam :), spaghetti). We don't eat like this all the time, but it's nice to know we can adjust our weekly spending easily with choosing the right meals.

Easy Meal Prep - If you have to cut veggies for one meal and more for another meal, just cut them all at the same time and save them in the fridge. You can do this for most veggies. I like to cut veggies and meat when Annie is napping. It never fails that she wants to be held right when your in the middle of chopping up raw chicken.

Where I get some of my recipes

Ok - so some of you will be familiar with how frugal my husband and I can be. I believe the word for it in Tagalog is coripots (I'm sure I butchered the spelling). Anyway, I don't buy too many cookbooks. In fact, I think most of my cookbooks were given to me as gifts or were free giveaways at events. Another place I get cookbooks are at the library. This is a great place for cooking ideas. People usually don't borrow cookbooks from the library, so they're always available and you can renew them for very long periods of time. Plus, you save money on expensive cookbooks where you may only like a couple of recipes. I just try out a recipe and write it down if I/we like it. And another good thing is that you always get the latest available edition - this may matter for some people.

Here are a couple of cookbooks I borrowed from the library and really recommend:
- The Joy of Cooking
- America's Test Kitchen Cookbook

Bakerella

Thanks to my sister-in-law Michelle, I am now addicted to this blog. Once you see the site, you will see why. Yum!

http://www.bakerella.com/

I have made her cake pops before. Once for Annie's first birthday party and they seemed to be a big hit with the kids and adults.

Introducing My Recipe Box!

Drum roll please!

I have opened up a new blog to share recipes, kitchen tips, and other points of information with all my family and friends. Hopefully this will be a good forum to share useful information with those who need/want new recipes and ideas (for the kitchen and the home). I often have people asking me for a couple of recipes and I figure this is the best way to share it without having to copy things over and over again - not that I mind sharing recipes at all - that's the whole point of this blog :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy what is contained in this new blog!