Coconut Lime Chicken

Well I saw the original Coconut Chicken on Pinterest and it looked awesome and deep fried.  It's  pretty delicious and with the lime gives it a Hawaiian flavor.  I think it needs a creamy warm pineapple dip, but I haven't figured it out yet-until then barbeque sauce will have to do.

Okay, mine didn't look very appetizing when I took a picture at night and with my little camera.  Pic from here

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
flour
1 egg
1 cup of panko (I only had seasoned bread crumbs)
1 cup of Shredded Coconut
Canola oil for frying
1/4 cup of lime juice

Directions: 
1.  Cut chicken into strips about 2 inches wide or narrower for crispier chicken. 
2.  Place egg, flour, and panko with coconut in their own shallow pan.  Dip chicken in egg, then flour, then panko mixture.
3.  Heat oil in pan.  Place chicken in oil until golden brown then turn to brown other side.  When both sides are browned sprinkle lime juice on chicken and cover with lid.  Turn down to medium low and heat until chicken comes up to temp (185).  Enjoy!

Homemade Cheese Balls (Blobs) Recipe

These are far too addictive and easy to make-so unless you've got a few extra calories to spare, beware, you will make these again.  I've been tweaking the usual breading I use after I made the chili glazed tofu where it called for cornmeal and cornstarch and it seems to work out pretty well.  I'm sure they would be great with panko or with really good cheese, but I just used some block mozzerella and colby cheese.  Fried cheese, what could go wrong?

Ingredients:
Cheese cut into little squares
Beaten Egg
1 cup of Itailian Bread Crumbs or Panko
1/4 cup of Cornstarch
1/4 cup Cornmeal
1/2 cup of flour
Canola Oil for Frying

Directions:
Mix bread crumbs, cornstarch, and cornmeal in a shallow container.  In another container place beaten egg, and in another container place flour.  Place oil in a skillet and heat at medium, I use probably about 1/2 an inch of oil, but the more oil the more likely they will come out in ball form instead of flat little blobs.  Depending on the amount of cheese balls being made the ingredients can be doubled or halved.  Dip cheese chunks in flour, then egg, and then breadcrumbs, turning to coat well.  Test to see if oil is hot enough by sprinkling some flour in it, if it fizzles up right away the oil is hot enough.  Place cheese balls in oil and turn when brown ( a few minutes).  When browned on all sides place on paper towels to take some of the oil off.  Eat and Enjoy!

***So I just looked at some other recipes and it looks like mixing shredded cheese, egg, flour, and salt and pepper together and then coating those in bread crumbs could be the way to go, but these were delcious and a simple addition to a meal when preparing breaded chicken anyway

Chili Glazed Tofu

Oh me oh my, I had my first adventure with tofu yesterday.  I bought it a few weeks ago and finally I had the nerve to try out the recipe from America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook.  It turned out quite well but I was a bit squeamish at first at the odd texture:  it is crunchy on the outside like fried chicken but soft and creamy on the inside.  The sauce turned out alright, but it would probably just be as easy to use some sweet and sour sauce over them instead. 

For the tofu:
28 ounces of soft tofu
3/4 cup of corn starch
1/4 cup of cornmeal
salt and pepper
3 Tablespoons of canola oil

1.  Cut the tofu into 'fingers' and spread out on paper towels over a cookie sheet to get some of the excess juice off.  Leave on the towels for 20 minutes.

2.  Place paper towels on a plate and then place in oven at 200 degrees.  This is so you can place them on the plate after they are done frying. 

3.  Mix cornmeal, salt and pepper, and cornstarch together in a shallow dish.  Coat the tofu with the mixture pressing and rolling it on.

4.  In nonstick skillet heat oil up and place about half of your tofu fingers into the hot oil.  Cook until golden brown on each side about 10 minutes.  Once done place on plate in oven. Add oil to pan and finishing cooking the rest of the tofu.

5.  For the glaze mix together in a small bowl 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of rice vinegar (I just used apple cider vinegar because I didn't have any rice), 1/3 cup of sugar, 4 garlic cloves minced, 2 teaspoons of asian garlic sauce, 2 teaspoons of cornstarch.  Add mixture to a hot skillet and simmer until reduced to almost half.  Add 1/4 cup of fresh cilantro and pour mixture over tofu. 

6.  Enjoy. This dish would be good with some fresh steamed vegetables and rice. 

Chickpea Cakes with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce Recipe

Well that certainly is a doozie of a name-for a bean burger-but I found them to be quite delicious.  My husband got me America's Test Kitchen Healthy Cookbook a few years ago for Christmas and I've found that they have a lot of good recipes, but they all seem very intensive.  I've been trying to eat more vegetarian foods mainly because they're tasty, but also are healthier and cheaper.  I found the recipe online here, but I'll recopy it for you all. 

INGREDIENTS
2 slices high-quality white sandwich bread, torn into pieces
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and shredded
Salt
1 1/4 c Greek yogurt
6 scallions, sliced thin
1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
2 large eggs
4 T olive oil
1 t garam masala
2 (15 oz) cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Pulse bread in food processor to coarse crumbs.  Spread crumbs on rimmed baking sheet and bake until golden brown and dry, 10-12 minutes.  Set aside to cool.
3. Toss cucumber and 1/2 t salt in colander and drain for 15 minutes.
4. Combine cucumber, 3/4 c yogurt, 2 T scallions, and 1 T cilantro in bowl and set aside.
5. Whisk eggs, 2 T oil, garam masala, and 1/4 t salt in bowl.
6. Place chickpeas in a large bowl and mash them with a potato masher until mostly smooth.  Stir in breadcrumbs, egg mixture, and remaining yogurt, scallions, and cilantro.  Form into six 1-inch-thick patties.
7. Heat 1 T oil in non-stick skillet over medium heat until shimmering.  Add three patties and cook until browned, 4 to 5 minutes per side.  Transfer to plate and tent loosely with foil.  Repeat with remaining oil and patties.
8. Serve with cucumber-yogurt sauce.

Grandma Margaret's Oatmeal Cookies

Well, here's another recipe from my Grandma's collection-it was originally called "Mrs. Bickett's Cookies" but no one knew who Mrs. Bickett was so they are now officially renamed.  This was the first time I've made the cookies and they are delicious.  They're not your average oatmeal cookie; they are a thin  chewy lacy cookie.  I'd definitely make them again and would try to add a bit less sugar because with using sweetened shredded coconut they become pretty sweet.  The recipe also comes with a frosting, but I decided it would be best not to make that since I will be the primary cookie monster.  Good Luck.

Ingredients:
1 cup of butter or margarine
1 cup of brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups of flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of salt
2 cups of quick oats
1 cup of shredded coconut
1 tsp of cinnamon

Directions:  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream butter and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix in.  Next add all of the rest of the ingredients and combine.  Drop by the spoonful on cookie sheets-they will spread out so don't place too closely.  Bake for 8-12 minutes until golden brown.  Remove and let cool a few minutes and then place on cooling racks. 

Frosting:  cream 1/4 cup of butter or margarine, 1 Tablespoon of milk, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract, and 1-2 cups of powdered sugar.  Frost cookies when cooled.  Enjoy.

Homemade Egg Rolls

Well these turned out absolutely delicious. I remember my mom making these one time and they were delicious.  I found the egg roll wrapper on a voyage out to the store without Colby and they were directly above the carrots, I had just never noticed them before.  A package of 15 costs less than three dollars and it is well worth trying.  As I posted earlier I tried the mozzarella sticks using them and they weren't great, but now that I think about it the mozz sticks would've been way better fried instead of baked, maybe that was the problem.  With a few simple ingredients you can really impress your family and friends. I apologize for the photos, it seems that egg rolls aren't very photogenic.

                             Ingredients for filling:                                      Other Ingredients:
                             Bag of Coleslaw                                                 Vegetable or Canola Oil
                             Shredded Carrot                                                 Egg Roll Wrappers
                             1 teaspoon of Sugar                                            Sweet and Sour Sauce for dipping
                             1 Egg White
                             2 teaspoons of Soy Sauce
                            1/2 cup of Cooked Chopped Chicken
                            1/2 Onion Chopped

Grandma Margaret's Cherry Wink Recipe

Yum, so my intentions this year were to make a bunch of cookie recipes from my Grandma's collection-unfortunately this did not come into fruition.  I finally made these cookies that I remember as a child-not very fondly though.  Now I find these cookies to be a welcome change from the tedium of chocolate and sugar cookie varieties.  The cookies have a crisp chewy texture with the corn flakes and dates along with the holiday appeal of a split maraschino cherry on top.  I put these cookies in the chest freezer with have downstairs thinking that they would last longer, but I find myself making special trips just so I can nab a cookie-hmm-might have to go check the laundry again...yum. 
 

2 1/4 cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup of Crisco
1 cup of white sugar
2 eggs
2 T. milk
1 tsp of vanilla or almond extract
1 c chopped pecans
1/3 cup of maraschino cherries chopped
2 1/2 cups of corn flakes crushed
2/3 cup of maraschino cherries halved

Directions
Heat oven to 375.  Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Cream together shortening and sugar.  Blend in eggs.  Add milk and flavoring.  Blend in sifted ingredients.  Add pecans, dates and chopped cherries.  Shape into balls and roll each in corn flakes and top each with half of a cherry.  Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.  Makes 5 dozen

Homemade Mozzerella Sticks

Mine didn't nearly look this good these are from tasteofhome.com.  Recipe found here

I ran across this recipe for Mozzarella Sticks quite a while ago and saved it in my bookmarks.  I finally got the chance to use it yesterday when I ventured out to the grocery store solo-I'm used to going with Colby everywhere-so I'm sure I narrated the whole grocery shopping experience out loud like I normally do: "Okay, now let's get some potatoes, do you see the potatoes?" I'm sure I took the cake for the craziest shopper in the store even with all of the holiday traffic.  I had a leisurely shop and discovered just above the carrots there's a tofu section, above the asparagus are egg roll wrappers, and there's a whole isle dedicated to Mexican and Asian delicacies.  So, I picked up some egg roll wrappers, tofu (I've never had it before), and some garlic pepper sauce from the Asian isle (I hope this is politically correct).   I remember my mom making homemade egg rolls when we were little, so I'm looking forward to trying that as well, since the mozzerella sticks weren't amazing. 

So here's mine, I know I know, not that delicious looking, and a fancy camera wouldn't have made them look any better...so basically I just took an egg roll wrapper, placed a hunk of cheese in it and rolled them up, sealing the edges with a bit of water.  I then fried them up in a few tablespoons of veggie oil for about 8 minutes total.  They weren't bad, but I definitely wouldn't say they were finger licking good.  Better luck next time I suppose. 

Crème-de-menthe Brownie Recipe

This weekend we had a few Christmas parties to go to so my mother in law and I made these minty brownies from a recipe my husband got from a co worker.  They are a bit more intensive than plain brownies but they are far more decadent with a buttery creamy  mint layer and chocolate glaze.  Enjoy.

Crème-de-menthe Brownies

Make brownies as directed on the box except add 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter before baking. Bake as directed on the box and cool. Do not cut.

Crème-de-menthe layer:

Beat 1/2 cup room-temperature butter or margarine, 2 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar and 3 tablespoons green crème-de-menthe syrup (found by the ice-cream toppings in the grocery store) in a large bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Spread over brownies.

Chocolate glaze:

Stir 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 6 tablespoons butter or margarine in a saucepan over low heat until melted (I microwave for 1 minute, stir and microwave for 10 second intervals until melted). Cool and then pour over the crème-de-menthe layer (spread evenly). Before glaze sets, sprinkle with coarsely chopped mint wafers (I use chopped Andies mint chocolate candy). Refrigerate until chocolate glaze is set but not hard, and then cut (it's easier to cut this way). Bars are best if kept refrigerated.

Note: I have also sprinkled crushed candy canes on the glaze instead of the chopped mint candy, which makes for a festive holiday treat.

Recipe from R. Larsen

Pecan Turtles

Yum.  I decided to make pecan turtles to share at some Christmas parties we are going this weekend.  We made some this past weekend when I visited my sister and they were so delicious.  They are simple to make.  Take some whole pecans and make a row of three or so on a greased cookie sheet and then place a caramel square on top. Place in oven for 5-7 minutes until melted in an oven at 350 degrees.  When you take them out of the oven just place a piece of chocolate bar on top and it will melt.  After it sits for a bit the chocolate can be smoothed out with a spoon. 

Homemade Butterfingers

Hmm, these tasted really great but I must say the final product looked terrible because I tried to melt the chocolate chips to quickly so it got chunky,  so that is why I don't have a picture.  I got the recipe from Pinterest and had to try them.  Here's the original recipe.

Ingredients:
1 bag or candy corn
1 cup of peanut butter
Chocolate for coating

1.  Melt candy corn in bowl in microwave.  This took a few minutes but stir it periodically until it is smooth. 
2.  Add peanut butter and stir until smooth. I microwaved it a bit (30 seconds) until the peanut butter got a bit melty as well. 
3.  Place in greased 9x9 pan.  Let cool.
4.  Cut into bar size and coat with chocolate.  Eat.

Happy Halloween

In the years to come I look forward to having my babe actually participate in holidays and get excited.  This year Colby is going to be a skunk because he is such a stinker-short story to go with that-he's not really a stinker most of the time.  I was at my in-laws looking through boxes of pictures with my husband and his parents.  Colby looks almost identical to my husband when they were babies, but Colby has my chubby cheeks.  We picked up a Halloween picture of my husband at one dressed as a devil and on the back it says in my mother-in-laws perfect cursive, 'we thought it was fitting'.  Needless to say she is still heckled about this photo caption.  On to the blog post:  Creepy food to make for kidders that aren't too scary to eat-click on pictures to go to links to find directions. 

Tasty Skeleton Cupcakes with mini cupcake and wafer hats

Yummy Mummies made with biscuits and nutella

Vampire Smiles made with apples and almond slivers

Spaghetti and Hotdogs-maybe a bit too gross to eat

Octopus Potpie

My Favorite Brownie Recipe

Pic from here

These are my favorite brownies because they are so moist and chewy, not to mention incredibly simple to make.  I got them from my old Better and Homes cookbook I got at a garage sale from the 70's.

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Butter
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla or almond flavoring
2 eggs
2 one ounce bars of unsweetened chocolate bars melted
1/2 cup of Flour

Directions:  
Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs mixing after each and add chocolate.  Mix in flour.  Place in greased 9x9 pan.  Put in oven and turn it on to 325 for 30 minutes or so.  Try not to eat the whole pan!

Once A Month Cooking List for October

Here comes a big one.  I'm going to actually try to have all my meals prepared and planned for the whole month! (We usually have left overs on the big dishes to have the next day)  Should be a tasty month and the prep wasn't bad at all.  Basically most of the meats just marinate in a baggie and I put them in the freezer then the day before I want to eat the dish I put it in the fridge.  I try to just do steamed veggies, potato, rice or salad as sides so it doesn't get too hectic.  I only spent 125 for all the meals!
Here's the plan:
1.  Chicken Curry
2.  Sweet Soy Marinated Chicken
3.  Chili Burgers
4.  Pork Chops
5.  Chicken Tacos
6.  Chicken Nuggets
7.  Farmer's Casserole
8.  Green Chili Enchiladas
9. Chili
10.  Grilled Chicken
11. Corn Soup
12.  BBQ Chicken Pizza
13.  Eggs and Waffles
14.  Meat Loaf
15.  Potato Soup
16.  Pizza
17.  Tacos
18.  Spaghetti

Once a Month Cooking

I bought this cookbook because I needed to spend five more dollars to get free shipping so I ended up with this gem.  I had heard about once a month cooking and it perplexed me.  Would it save me time?  Money?  Energy?  I tried it last month and I don't think it saved any money or time.  I still had to use the oven or crock pot most days and instead of buying groceries once every week I did one big shop and still had to go back every week for lunch meat and milk.  What  I do enjoy about this method is the variety.  We commonly get in a rut of tacos, spaghetti, and grilled chicken so having new recipes to try out is thrilling in its own respect.  I was dissappointed in the quality of revisions of the cookbook.  Some recipes are vague and contradictory.  One calls for cooked cubed chicken in the ingredient list and then in the directions it says to cook it.  Here's our menu for two weeks that pretty much lasted a month for us.

Herbed Chicken:  Chicken with cream of mushroom soup baked in oven
Pot Roast:  Pot roast in crock pot
Chicken Nuggets:  Delicious!  Chicken strips dipped in bread crumbs
Playoff Burgers:  Burgers with cheese and onion
Farmer's Casserole:  Eggs, potatoes, ham, onion, and green pepper
Poppy Beef:  Strange but good.  Hamburger with linguine coated in cheese
Chicken Tacos:  Chicken mixed with taco seasoning in crock pot
Mexican Lasagna:  Chicken, beans, lasagna noodles baked
Corn Soup:  Tasty spicy corn soup

Quick Breakfast Bites

Yes, yes, I have spent far too much time on Pinterest during naps and bed times.  I seem to always find something fun I've wanted to do and my bookmark folders are over flowing so I decided it was time to try some of these out.  They turned out well and looked beautiful and poofy right out of the oven.  Definitely would be fun to do for a breakfast when you have guests staying over. 

 Here is the original pic from Pinterest:

Here are mine:

 Directions:  Grease muffin cups and put veggies and meat in each cup.  I just used ham, onion, and then cheese on top.  Mix 8 eggs and 1 tablespoon of flour then pour into cups.  Bake 18 minutes or so at 350.  I placed some in the fridge and froze the rest to dethaw and eat later.  About a minute in the microwave and they were fast and tasty to eat.

 

 

How to Cut An Artichoke

 Oh how I love the mighty artichoke.  It has a deep flavor and dipped in butter, yum.  Artichokes look very scary to prepare but they are very simple and forgiving.  The canned versions do not do the fresh version justice.

 1.  Buy an artichoke.  Generally I try to buy them when they are on sale for 99 cents, but this is a rare find.  Look to make sure they are firm and not slimy in any spots.

  2.  Cut about the top inch or two of the artichoke off.  I like to use a bread knife and saw through it.

 3.  Cut the stem off so there is about a half inch left.  This is too stringy and woody to enjoy, but sometimes I try to cook them up and eat them any ways. 

4.  Now here is your artichoke.  Place it in a pot so it is sitting on its stem in a few inches of water.  Cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes until you can pull a leaf out easily.  To eat it you pull one leaf out at a time and scrape it accross your top teeth to get the "meat" off.  Then discard the rest of the leaf in a big bowl on the table.  Once you start to get down to the little pokey leaves scrape out the little leaves and fluff with a spoon.  This will leave you the heart of the artichoke which is the best part.  I recommend dipping everything in butter.  Enjoy! 

My Favorite Snack!

Well, aside from a spoonful of nuttella - I love these s'more sandwiches.  When I used to baby sit I would make these for the kiddos and I'm sure they got a mega sugar buzz.  Basically spread peanut butter over bread, cover with marshmallows and chocolate chips then place on cookie sheet and broil until the mallows turn golden brown.  Enjoy!

Cookie Oreo Brownie Bars

I must say I was quite disappointed by this recipe.  I had been drooling over the pictures on Pinterest for several weeks when I finally decided to make it for an upcoming trip back home.  These bars were touted as the best of all worlds-brownies-cookies-oreos-what would be better?  Well I can tell you brownies, oreos, and cookies would be way better separately.  The brownies burned, the cookies weren't moist, and the oreos didn't have their tell tale crunch.

Here's the picture from Pinterest-gooey and delicious

 Here are mine, dry, burnt, and blah:

Sugared Pecans or Walnuts

Yum.  That pretty much sums up this recipe.  I'm hoping to revisit this recipe over the holiday season and share with my friends and family as gifts.  The original recipe came from here.  I found that adding more powdered sugar helped coat the nuts better.

Ingredients:

• 16 ounces pecans or walnut halves
• 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Preparation:

Turn slow cooker to HIGH about 15 minutes in advance. In hot slow cooker, stir together the nuts and butter. Add the powdered sugar, stirring to blend and coat evenly. Cover and cook on HIGH for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to LOW and remove lid; cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 2 to 3 hours, or until the nuts are coated with a crisp glaze.
Transfer the nuts to a bowl.
In another small bowl, combine the spices; sift over the nuts, stirring to coat evenly.
Let cool before serving.