Freezer to table in 30 minutes!!

I needed some guidance for dinner tonight so I put it out to my facebook friends. Silly I know, I consider myself to be quite comfortable in the kitchen, but have been feel less interested in cooking and baking. Well, tonight I did both. Firstly, I'd like to thank my friend Linda who game the suggestion for tonight's dinner. And really it's just chicken and pasta but it was so fast and easy!

Here is exectly what she said:

"Cut breasts nice and thin, dredge in flour, salt, pepper and garlic. Cook in a pan with a little olive oil till crispy and serve over pasta drizzled with olive oil and sea salt... or just salt if you don't have it... easy!"

And that was my dinner, along with a side of lightly steamed spinach.

 

 

 

 

St. Patrick's Day Dinners

Yes, dinners....plural.

Reese requested squids for dinner and Blake obliged. I on the other-hand have a healthy indulgence!



Squids are made by simply cutting up a hotdog in thirds and sticking long noodles through completely. Boil until noodles are done, serve with melted cheese or ketchup. In honor of St Patty's Day I dropped some green dye into the biscuit mix and their applesauce. They thought I was the coolest mom!


I have now had this dinner 2 nights in a row!

2 Hand fulls of spinach
1/4 mandarin oranges
1 oz feta cheese, I use reduced fat
2-4 oz chicken
1-2 Tbsp pecans or walnuts
1 Tbsp poppy seed dressing

Here's the secret. I watered down my poppy seed dressing. A serving of the dressing (which it happens to be my most favorite) is 2 TBS but has more than 200 calories. Why even eat a salad. If you water down the 1 TBS of the poppy seed dressing you reduce the calories significantly without losing the taste. Try it!

Stuff I made....

Noodles made on my new kitchen-aid noodle maker
whole wheat pizza dough with super yummy healthy toppings
cinnamon rolls that taste as good as they look...if not better!
caramels, toffee, and cake truffles

What recipe do you want?

Picky Palate!

If you haven't already checked out this awesome website...she's a a genius with her recipes...and her pictures are almost edible!

Well, head over there for a chance at a giveaway to an awesome toy website!

http://picky-palate.com/2009/11/16/toy-store-giftcard-giveaway-out-of-the-toy-box/comment-page-3/#comment-15545

Bat Cake

I made this cake! And donated it to the cake calk for our ward's Halloween party. I didn't get a picture of mine. It was great! I used a chocolate cake mix, layered it, flavored the home-made butter cream frosting with Chinese Five Spice. Coupled with the chocolate was AMAZING!! Anyways! It was fantastic, if I do say so myself!

Plan ahead meals!

So you may have heard of OAMC. Once A Month Cooking. Some people will devote a Saturday each month and cook/prep all the family's meals for the month and freeze them. They'll have soups, sides, main dishes, casseroles. It's amazing. Anyways, i had these potatoes that were crying to not go to waste so I made up a HUGE batch of mashed potatoes and made some Shepherd's Pie. But the fun part is putting it in a cupcake tray and freezing them, making single servings of practically anything. So I even made individual servings of mashed potatoes and froze them!

Give it a try!
Here's a shot of the Shepherd's Pie!

Tri- Level Brownies

As requested by Michelle!

Tri-Level Brownies

Bottom Layer:
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 t baking soda
3 sticks melted butter
3/4 t. salt
1 1/2 c brown sugar
3 c. rolled oats (uncooked)

Mix together to form a "meal" and press into a greased jelly roll pan Bake at 350 degrees for ONLY 10 min.

Middle Layer:
3 1oz square unsweetened chocolate melted
1 1/2 c butter, softened
3/4 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
2 1/4 c sugar
3 egg
2 c flour
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c chopped walnuts (if you like that sort of thing!)

Combine chocolate, butter and sugar. Add egg and beat well. Add flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Mix well. (Add nuts now if using them). Spread over bottom layer and return to oven and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Top Layer:
If you have a favorite chocolate frosting then go with it. If not this one turns out great!

4 1/2 c powdered sugar
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c butter, softened
1/3 c milk
2 t vanilla

Combine all together and top when the 2nd layer has completely cooled. You will have left over frosting, this you can freeze for other baked goods!


***A few notes!***

This recipe is TRIPLED! So it makes for a great thing to take for larger groups! You can reduce it easily (if you can remember fractions from 5th grade), and bake in a 9x13 pan.

Always keep an eye on your baking when trying a new recipe so that you don't over/undercook and these delicious brownies turn out to be a failure!

ALSO to make any recipe a real HIT use real vanilla extract...not the imitation stuff. I REALLY like Watkins Brand extract, and I can find it at Wal-mart usually cheaper than the other stuff!

ENjoy and good luck!