Baked Oatmeal, Ohhhh my!

Hello all! We eat A LOT of cereal at our house. We regard it as its own food group most of the time. For Michael, I usually end up buying several boxes a week. I also like oatmeal and this morning, I decided to try some baked oatmeal because this recipe calls for applesauce and I just made a DELICIOUS variety and this was a fantastic opportunity to use some. This was an absolute treat. It was so easy to make and the only problem is that even though I was full…I could have eaten the whole pan. Michael ate about half the pan and he doesn’t even like oatmeal that much. Yes, it’s that good.

Baked Oatmeal

2 cups uncooked old fashioned oats

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (I like a lot!)

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup each of raisins and dried cranberries (I left these out)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 ½ cups milk

½ cup applesauce

1 ½ tablespoons butter, melted

1 large egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl an combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir well.

Pour the whole thing into an 8 inch square baking dish and bake 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

I poured some extra applesauce over the top and it was literally the most wonderful start to the day that I could have ever asked for.

Vegetable Barley Soup

Well…my doctor tells me I have a sodium deficiency so I have been trying to find salty food that isn’t too fattening…I just know it’s possible. Soup seems to be a great way to get a lot of sodium in a healthy way. The recipe for this soup calls for low sodium broth but I’ve slightly modified it for more salt but I’ll note my changes for you hypertensive folks J This soup is so easy and quick but is also sooo delicious. The barley fills you up and keeps you full for a while. Mike refuses to try it because it doesn’t have meat in it but that’s okay because I have no problem eating this all week!

1 cup barley (I used instant, so much easier than boiling it for 40 minutes)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 carrots peeled and diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 package of button mushrooms, sliced

3 cans low sodium vegetable broth (I used regular)

1 cup water (I added a chicken bullion cube to this)

2 bay leaves

(I added some Lawry’s salt with parsley for good measure)

Dry spices like oregano, basil whatever you had, I just dumped a bunch in.

In a medium pan add 1 cup barley to two cups boiling water. Cook according to package directions, set aside

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook until soft. Add the carrots and celery and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook until they are soft. Add the vegetable broth, water (and boulion cube J), bay leaves, and lawry’s salt and any other herbs and spices you want. Simmer about 10 minutes. Add barley and cook another 15 minutes or so.

Remove the bay leaves and serve. Add salt and pepper to taste. YUM!

Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

I realize that popcorn balls are usualy a halloween or Christmas treat...But if that is the case then why does the song talk about spring? Either way it's Summer, not any of the aforementioned seasons or holidays and I have stumbled upon a recipe for popcorn balls that is so delicious and easy that you will want to make them every day.

Popcorn Balls

3/4 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
10 marshmallows
1-2 bags unbuttered popped popcorn

Directions:
Melt the butter and brown sugar over medium low heat. Once they are melted together, add the marshmallows. It's VERY important you keep the heat medium-low because I have learned, once upon a failed rice krispie, that if you heat this stuff too fast, it will turn rock hard when it cools and be completely unedible. Sad face.

While this is melting, you can pop your popcorn. I have a fabulous popcorn popper so I don't use the bagged kind so I just sort of estimate how much I imagine 1 and half bags of popcorn would be.

Pour the melted mixture over the popcorn and stir it with a spoon - you don't want to touch it yet, it's like sugary LAVA. Once you have coate the popcorn reasonably evenly, form the popcorn into balls as big or small as you like.

This makes enough to make about 10 baseball sized balls or 15 ish slightly-bigger-than-golf-ball-size.

Chipotle Lime Quinoa Salad - Just Try It!!!

I got this awesome recipe off picky-palate.com. I have a new obsession with Quinoa (pronounced by hippies as Keen-Wah). It's a super healthy grain that has lots of protein in it. Men's Health calls it a super food because of how nutritious it is...and Men's Health is my bible so I believe it. This salad is GREAT for Barbecues and family get togethers because it is delicious but more importantly, you greatly impress people because you are fancy enough to know what quinoa is and how to use it. Just act like it's not big deal and you are just that awesome. Enjoy!

1 Cup uncooked quinoa

3 Tablespoons fresh lime juice

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt with parsley

1 teaspoon adobe sauce (from can of chipotle peppers)

1 can yellow corn, drained

1 can white beans, drain and rinsed

1/2 Cup fresh chopped cilantro leaves, chopped

2 chipotle peppers, chopped

1/2 Cup red bell pepper, chopped

1/4 Cup green onions, chopped (the green parts)

1. Prepare quinoa according to package directions. In a small bowl whisk the lime juice, olive oil, salt, parsley and adobo sauce. Pour into quinoa and mix in corn, beans, cilantro, chipotle peppers, red bell pepper and green onions. Cover and chill until serving.

8-10 servings

Recipe Box: Spaghetti Pie!!!

I love spaghetti pie...more than regular spaghetti...more than I should. This is my favorite recipe. Enjoy!

You Will Need:

6 oz. (about half the box) of spaghetti (I use whole wheat, much to Mike's dismay)

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 small can of tomato paste

1 packet of Spaghetti Sauce seasoning

2 1/4 cups water

(You can substitute the previous three ingredients for a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce, I just prefer the kind you make from the seasoning packet)

1-2 tbsp butter (optional but helpful)

2 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup mozerella cheese

1 cup lowfat cottage cheese

What to do:

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Boil the spaghetti noodles (I like to salt the water with kosher salt, it adds a nice flavor to the noodles)

2. At the same time, brown the beef. Once cooked, drain the grease (Author's note: I hate hamburger grease like I hate the Nazis so once I drain off the extra grease, I also spread it out on a few paper towels to get ALL the grease off) and set aside.

3. Mix the hot spaghetti with a little butter (maybe a tablespoon, I usually use less), the parmesan and the 2 eggs and put in a pie dish to form a "crust" for the pie.

4. Mix the tomato paste, water, and seasoning packet according to directions on packet. Then add the beef and let simmer for a few minutes.

5. Spread the cottage cheese over the spaghetti mixture

6. Pour the spaghetti sauce over the spaghetti and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes

7. Sprinkle Mozzarella cheese over the hot pie and bake 5 more minutes until the cheese in melted.

8. Let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving, it will thicken this way.

Since my fiance is a cop and works weird hours, I generally like to make stuff that I can put into tupperware to make little TV dinners for him to heat up when he gets home so yes, this reheats well. I served it (to myself) with steamed vegetables seasoned with nutritional yeast and a garlic knot breadstick that I made a while ago and froze. And I wanted to cry because it was so good. That is all!

I'm back! With a new recipe!!!

So our internet hasn't been working...let me clarify our NEIGHBOR's internet hasn't been working :P and therefore, I haven't been able to update. But I wanted to post a recipe that I tried this last week and found to be delicious!!! Mike ate it up too, which isn't saying much since he eats everything. Anyway, it's called Chicken Burrito Bake. I know, the idea of pouring alfredo sauce on burritos is a little off-putting, but it's awesome, trust me!!!

As you may or may not know, I don't measure anything most of the time, I just approximate. Trust your eyeballs as measuring cups:

CHICKEN BURRITO BAKE

A little more than 2 cups shredded chicken (I bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco)

1 Jar Tomatillo salsa (the green salsa)

1 container of refrigerated-type alfredo sauce (It's important to get the refrigerated kind as it has a different taste and is usually better quality than the kind in the spaghetti aisle. I used Butoni by the refrigerated pasta)

A few handfuls of mexican blend shredded cheese

4-5 tortillas

Sour cream and sliced avocados for seving

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Okay, in a large bowl, mix the chicken, half the cheese, and about a cup of the tomatillo salsa until the chicken is well coated.

Spoon about 1/2 cup of the chicken mixture into the middle of each tortilla, roll each up into a burrito and place snugly in a baking dish.

In the same bowl that you mixed the chicken, mix the whole container of alfredo and the other half of the cheese and pour it over the burritos. If you want, pour a little more of the salsa over the top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cheese is bubbling. Top with sliced avocados and sour cream!

Beautiful dinner! This is grilled chicken with pasta in a tomato cream sauce along with some (burnt) asparagus. Mike loves this stuff and it's a recipe I consider a dish for "company" since it tastes sooo good and looks pretty impressive. Also, it's really cheap and easy to make. Don't believe me? Try it yourself! Amanda over at kevinandamanda.com has done a terrific job explaining step by step how to bust this out. Go here to see the recipe:

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dinner/grilled-chicken-pasta-in-a-tomato-cream-sauce.html

I have made a few lazy girl and helpful modifications:

1. Any time I make chicken, I always let it sit in milk and lemon juice for at least a half hour. Ideally, I would do this before I go to work (or for 2-4 hours) but I never remember so I usually stick the chicken in a ziploc, pour milk and lemon juice over it and stick it in the fridge while I prepare other stuff for the recipe. The reason for this is that the milk and lemon juice (a quick and dirty sub for buttermilk) breaks down the proteins in the chicken and makes it more tender and also, for scientific reasons unknown to me, makes it sooo much more juicy.

2. I have made this recipe both with fresh basil and parsley and with dried basil. Both turned out great. If you don't have fresh basil on hand, dried works fine, you just feel less fancy.

3. If I am not using fresh herbs, I use "italian style" tomato sauce instead of plain.

4. Today, I didn't have tomato SAUCE but tomato PASTE. I just mixed it with 1 cup of water and it was fine but you DO need to add a little sugar otherwise it tastes a little bit bitter. Just pour it in a little at a time and taste it until you think it tastes good. Probably just a teaspoon or two.

Try this recipe, you will love it!!!

St. Patrick's Day Mini Cupcakes! Yummm!

A little baby cuppy cake!!!
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY, EVERYBODY!!! I made these little beauties last night to bring to work today and EVERYONE loved them. The recipe is super easy - it's just a box of white cake mix with a few additives.

Prepare the cake mix as it says on the box (I swap the oil for applesauce) and then ADD the following:

1 small box instant vanilla pudding

1/2 cup sour cream

(Oh yeah, LOTS of green food coloring)

These cupcakes will turn out to be the fluffiest most delicious things you have ever tasted! Tell everyone you made it from scratch.

Recipe Box: Japanese Chicken and Veggie Fried Rice

The other night I made this little beauty: Japanese Chicken with Veggie Friend Rice. The sauce for this stuff is SOOOO good. And guess what! The leftovers are awesome too! Keep reading for the recipe...

What you need:

2 eggs

1 C. flour

6 Tbsp sesame seeds

1 tsp. oil

8 chicken breasts

3/4 C. soy sauce

2 C. vinegar

1/3 C. water

4 C. sugar

Rice:

1 egg

2 C. instant brown rice

1 small package of frozen veggies

soy sauce to taste

To make the chicken:

If I'm just making this for Mike and I, I half the recipe and it still makes plenty for the two of us.

(preheat your oven to 350 degrees)

1. Whip the eggs in a bowl and set aside.

2. In a separate bowl combine flour and sesame seeds

3. Dip chicken breasts in egg and then roll generously in the flour and seeds

3. heat oil in skillet over medium high heat and quickly brown the chicken, just a couple minutes on each side. The goal here is not to cook the chicken, just to brown the flour and make it a little crispy. (if I'm in a hurry, I skip this step)

4. Put in baking dish and make the sauce!

5. Mix the soy sauce and vinegar and water. NOW, for the sugar. If you are like me, you don't love putting a ton of sugar in stuff and you probably noticed that 4 cups is a lot of sugar. This is what I do. I pour the sugar in a half cup at a time and taste test. You can add as much or as little sugar as you want. Oh, and keep in mind, the majority of the sauce stays in the pan, so it's not like you are actually ingesting all that sweetness.

6. Okay, once you have your sauce the way you like it, pour the whole entire thing over the chicken. Don't worry, it's supposed to be swimming.

7. Bake in your preheated 350 degree oven for 40-45 minutes. MEANWHILE, let's make the rice

Rice:

First thing, scramble the egg in a skillet. When it is cooked, set it aside in a bowl. In that same skillet, prepare the rice according to the directions on the box (Very Julia Child, I know). When the water starts to boil, pour in the veggies and then put the rice in. Stick the lid on and let the rice do its thing. When the rice is done sitting, pour in soy sauce to taste

Then you are done. If there is still time left on the chicken, start on the dishes! I always like to start on the dishes while my food is baking because after I eat, I'm always too lazy to clean up. Ugh!

That's it! Hope you and your family like it!