French Toast

E & I have two different ways of making French toast. Sometimes we will just buy a bag of cinnamon swirl bread and use a plain egg batter to make it; it turns out pretty good. We also have a Better Homes and Garden Cookbook with a simple French toast recipe. We used that recipe today, since we had all of the ingredients at home.

Ingredients:

• 4 beaten eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 TBSP. sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 8 slices of bread (we just used wheat bread that we had leftover; it probably wasn't thick enough, but it was free!)
• 2 TBSP. butter

Directions:
1) In a shallow bowl, beat together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon & nutmeg.
2) Dip bread slices into egg mixture, coating both sides.
3) In a skillet or a griddle, melt 1 TBSP of butter over medium heat.
4) Add half of the bread slices and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.
5) Repeat with remaining butter & bread slices.
6) Serve with syrup (and I like to add butter & powdered sugar too... yummy!)

Blueberry Banana Muffins

We had some leftover ripe bananas and some frozen blueberries, so I used this recipe (awkward title, in my opinion) and made up a batch. We used frozen blueberries, and we substituted shortening for butter. They turned out good. Today I procrastinated homework and cover letter writing by cooking and baking. Oh well; we all need a mental health day sometimes :)

Berry Breakfast Smoothie

I've been trying to get in the habit of eating more fruit. They also say that blueberries & flax seeds are good "cancer fighters." I don't know if it's true, but I also call this my anti-cancer smoothie :)

This recipe serves 1 person (using a pretty big glass).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. (more or less) orange juice
• 1 TBSP of ground flax seed (I buy a bag of flax seed and then grind up about a week's worth in my mini Cuisinart. Then I refrigerate the ground flax seed)
• 1 banana (peeled & sliced)
• 1/2 c. yogurt (if you want to be super healthy, use Greek yogurt. But then you will probably want to add some honey to this recipe. Also Greek yogurt is usually $$$, so I just use plain or vanilla yogurt most of the time; gotta stay on a budget)
• 1/2 c. frozen blueberries
• 3-5 frozen strawberries
  
• MONEY SAVING TIP: I used to buy a bag of "Mixed Frozen Berries" instead of measuring out blueberries & strawberries separately. Then I noticed that I was paying almost $4 for a 12 oz. bag of mixed berries. And a 16 oz. bag of frozen blueberries or strawberries is around $3.25.
  

Directions:
1) Put ingredients in a blender

2) Blend (on a high speed) until all of the ingredients are mixed together

3) Enjoy!

Other helpful note: Check your teeth after eating this; blueberries like to get stuck between your teeth....

Banana Muffins

We finally used our wedding mixer this weekend; I think that some people get married just so that they can get a Kitchenaid mixer. It's like a rite of passage :)

E & I had been intimidated by ours, but it wasn't as complicated as we thought it was going to be.

We used my mom's banana muffins recipe. Yummy!

The recipe is supposed to make 36 muffins, but I probably overfilled the muffin cups, because we only got 28 out of the recipe :)

Ingredients:

• 3 3/8 c. flour
• 2 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 c. shortening (we used Market Pantry brand - it was cheap; we have subbed unsalted butter in the past, and using the shortening made all the difference)
• 3 eggs
• 3 bananas (peeled & sliced) (we used SUPER ripe bananas)
  
• 1 c. sour milk (to make milk sour: add 2 TBSP of vinegar or lemon juice to milk; wait a while for the milk to thicken, and then it has soured)

Directions:

1) Put ingredients into mixing bowl in the order given.

2) Beat on medium speed with a mixer for 2 minutes.

3) Fill muffin cups 2/3 full

4) Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes on the center rack.

5) To know if they are done: either do the toothpick test or (this test is easier for me) if the center of the muffin springs back when touched, they are done.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We made up a 1.5 batch of chocolate chip cookies last night. We baked 1.5 dozen cookies right away, and then we froze the rest of the dough. When we freeze the dough, we freeze it in little cookie dough balls on a baking sheet. We freeze it overnight, and then when they are frozen into little cookie dough balls, we put them into a plastic bag in the freezer. It makes it a lot easier, in my opinion. We have 4 1/2 dozen frozen cookie dough balls in our freezer right now :)

My recipe for chocolate chip cookies is based on the Nestle Toll House recipe, with a few changes.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) of unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup of granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup of packed brown sugar
• 1 TBSP of vanilla extract (variation on original recipe)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12 oz. pkg) of Semi-Sweet chocolate morsels (My variation: I use 1/2 package of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/2 package of milk chocolate chips. I think it's a good combination)

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2) Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl

3) Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy. (Be sure to use a LARGE bowl)

4) Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5) Gradually beat in flour mixture

6) Stir in chocolate chips

7) Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets

8) Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until golden brown

9) Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely

Tomato, Basil and Cheese Baked Pasta

I knew that I was craving some kind of cheesy baked pasta, but I didn't want to use our normal baked ziti recipe.

Rachel Ray saved the day for us with this recipe, although I changed it up a little.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ziti (instead of shell pasta)
• Italian sausage (we had about 3/4 lb. left, so we just used that)
• 2 TBSP. EVOO
• 3 large cloves garlic (chopped)
  
• 1 small yellow onion (diced) - I bought a new kitchen toy that makes chopping onions a lot more fun. It was so worth it :)
  
• 1 (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes (Lately the cheapest store for canned tomatoes, including diced, crushed, etc. has been Target - if you buy the Market Pantry brand. I think it's around 54 or 56 cents for a can of diced tomatoes. A store brand, same sized can at the other local stores is $1.06. I think the can of crushed tomatoes was about a $1 at Target; cheaper than Cub has been lately.)
  
• 10 to 12 fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 7 oz. container of store bought basil pesto sauce (I had every intention to make my own pesto, but my Friday classes sucked the life out of me, so store-bought pesto it was...)
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (we didn't use this kind; we had a bag of half Romano and half Asiago cheese in our freezer, so we used that instead; and it worked out well)
• 1/2 pound of fresh mozzarella, shredded (I cheaped out on this ingredient too; I bought a block of Target brand mozzarella cheese and shredded it. Probably not as good as the fancy mozzarella, but it saved us some $$$)

Directions
1) Brown the Italian sausage, and then set it aside

2) Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt the water. Then cook the pasta according to the directions on the box; cook it until it is al dente. Drain it and set it aside.

3) Preheat a deep, big skillet over medium heat. (We used the 11" chef's skillet from our wedding set)

4) Add the 2 TBSP of EVOO to the skillet; coating the bottom of the pan.

5) Add the garlic; let it cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the chopped onion. Cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes (until the onions look cooked).

6) Add the tomatoes and stir. Let the tomatoes come to a bubble, and then reduce the heat to low.

7) Stir in the basil pieces and wilt them. Season with salt & pepper.

8) Preheat the broiler and place a rack in the center of the oven.

9) Add the pasta shells to a casserole dish. (We used 2 dishes, so we could freeze a batch for another night). Add the Italian sausage, pesto sauce, ricotta cheese and a handful of the romano & asiago cheese. Stir, coating the pasta with the pesto and cheeses.

10) Pour the hot tomato and basil sauce over the pasta.

11) Top with the mozzarella cheese and the remaining romano & asiago cheeses.

12) Place the casserole under the broiler in the middle of the over (about 10 to 12 inches from the heat). Let the cheese melt and bubble on top; 3 to 5 minutes.


Notes: It turned out really yummy. We also had garlic bread. We prepared 2 casserole dishes of this, and we froze one without baking it. My thought is that we might have been better off with setting the oven to 350 degrees and baking it for a longer period of time. The broiler did a good job of melting the cheese, and it tasted really yummy, but I didn't think the dish was hot enough. When we bake our frozen batch, we will probably thaw it out in the fridge, and then bake it at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes (or longer) instead of broiling it. Other than that, it was a great recipe.

Updates

I finally got over my sinus infection. Thank God. It was not very pleasant. Also, it's sunny and somewhat warm here, so that is nice :)

I'm trying to be more optimistic about the job search. I've started applying to jobs where a J.D. is an asset but not a necessity. They are jobs that I would enjoy working at, and where I would still be helping people. Hopefully something will eventually pan out. The job descriptions for the positions to which I am applying are jobs that I think would be a really good "fit" for me. I feel like I would be happy working at them. This makes me feel more optimistic, too.

I am pretty sure that my tube moved to my left side (instead of hanging straight down). It's causing me some pain, but I know that it could be worse. And I will either get used to it soon, or it will move again. I know that I could have it much much worse. A girl from my h.s. just found out that she has an orange-sized tumor in her brain. She is having neurosurgery this week. I hope that it isn't cancerous, and I hope that she makes a speedy recovery. I'm so thankful that my problem wasn't a tumor. An arachnoid cyst (even a huge one) really isn't a big deal at all.

Now for some recipe updates.

We tried the chicken stew recipe. I couldn't taste it (thanks a lot, sinuses!). But E really enjoyed it, so it must have been good :) I froze 4 chicken thighs, some bacon, tomato paste and chicken stock, so we can recreate the meal in a month or so without having to buy very many ingredients.

We also made a beef barley soup in the crockpot. Again, thanks to the sinuses, I couldn't taste it. The only thing that I could taste was the thyme, and it was actually overwhelming to me. But, again, E enjoyed it. We got a lot of leftovers, and we had some to freeze. So that's good :)

Yowzers!

It's my spring break (yay!). I have a cold (not so yay!). Every time we see our nieces, they are sick. And every time we see them, I get sick a couple of days later. Coincidence? Probably not :) It definitely makes me worried about having kids of our own.

I mailed off a demand letter this morning. I also am trying to get myself to start on the official bar application. I have all of the information gathered for it, but since the program doesn't work on Macs, I have to fill it out on E's PC in the "dungeon" (i.e. basement). It's cold down there!

I think I might have to take a nap first :)

This week's meal plan

It's spring break for me! Yay! Unfortunately it is not spring break for E. So we are only having 2 dinners together at home this week. Boo :(

Tonight we are having Panama Pork Stew and garlic bread. The stew is cooking in our crock pot right now and it smells delicious. It looks like we will have plenty of leftovers for lunches this week too. We are using leftover Cuban pork roast (that we froze) in this dish. Hopefully it turns out :)

Later on this week we are having Chicken Stew with White Beans & Spinach and garlic bread. I've been wanting to try out this recipe for a while, so hopefully it's as good as it sounds :)

Freezer Garlic Bread

Italian bread is on sale at the local grocery store. $1 for a BIG loaf. E & I eat a lot of garlic bread, but we know that fresh bakery bread doesn't keep very well if you leave it sitting out (yuck to moldy bread). We usually freeze it, and then thaw it, slice it, and make garlic bread.

Then I read a recipe for "Freezer Garlic Bread" and decided to try it.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 loaf of Italian bread
  
• 1/2 stick of butter, softened (our poor arteries!)
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• aluminum foil
• freezer bag

Directions:
1. Cut the loaf into 1" slices
2. Blend the butter and garlic powder in a bowl
3. Butter one side of each slice of bread and stick them back together so that a buttered side of bread touches an unbuttered side of bread.
4. Use a brush to butter the outside of the loaf with butter (why not?)
5. Wrap the garlic bread in foil and then put it in a bag
6. Freeze it (or if you are going to eat it within 3 days, put it in the fridge)
7. Heat frozen bread at 375 degrees for 30 minutes

I prepared six 1/2 loaves of this. We are having one tonight and one with another dinner this week. 4 loaves are in the freezer for another week. It was a lot of work, but I would rather do that work all at once, than have to go through the process every time we want garlic bread. I just hope that it turns out :)

Hot Cocoa

I drink a lot of hot chocolate. Unfortunately, I usually drink Swiss Miss. I think it is probably not the "healthiest" hot chocolate ever. So when I ran out of Swiss Miss on grocery day last week, I decided that it was time to try making my own. I know I wanted a recipe that doesn't require milk (in case I don't have any around). I found this recipe and it sounded good.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup cocoa (the recipe calls for Dutch process, but after talking with the lady at Penzeys, I ended up using the "natural cocoa powder" and it was a great choice)
• 2 and 1/2 cups instant nonfat dry milk (I got a big box of this for $5 at Cub; I bought the generic brand. The non-generic was $10 for the same size box; ridiculous!)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cornstarch
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper (I actually have a measuring spoon for a "pinch" thanks to a wedding gift from a lovely bridesmaid and personal attendant, and it was the perfect amount for this recipe. My guess is that it is between 1/16 and 1/8 of a tsp.)

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a large tupperware container (make sure you have a lid for that container).
2. Put the lid on (tightly - heehee - don't want a disaster) and shake it until the ingredients are mixed evenly.
3. Fill your mug half full with the mixture (I used 1/2 cup).
4. Pour hot water into the mug and then stir to combine.

Chicken and Black Bean Tacos

I found this recipe on Walgreen's website; it looks like it's a recipe for people with diabetes. Luckily, neither of us is diabetic, but ground chicken was on sale.

I do not recommend buying the ground chicken that we bought. I think it would have been worth the extra 70 cents for ground beef. Both of us found crunchy pieces of meat in our tacos. Ew!!!

E is a trooper and he ate the leftovers. I am traumatized and will likely never eat ground chicken again. But the combination of the ground meat and black beans was pretty good, so I would recommend the recipe. Just don't use cheap ground chicken. *gag!*

Cuban Pork Roast

I made this served with rice and frijoles negros for E's birthday weekend. (Note: you will need to marinade it for 12-24 hours before cooking it, so you need to plan ahead.) We ended up with a whole lot of pork roast. With the leftovers, I ate a pulled pork sandwich one night (I cooked it in a saucepan with some BBQ sauce). Then we froze the rest. We are going to use half of the leftovers tonight in a Panama Pork Stew. And in a couple of weeks we will use the rest to make some fried rice or lo mein.

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp. whole black peppercorns
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 tsp. salt (sorry, E's blood pressure!)
  
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup dry sherry (you can get some cheap cooking sherry at Cub)
• 3 TBSP. lemon juice (took 1 lemon)
• 3 TBSP. fresh lime juice (took 2 limes for me)
• 2 TBSP. olive oil
• 4 lbs. pork shoulder, trimmed and tied.
  

Directions:

1. Heat a skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the cumin seeds and peppercorns to the pan; stir constantly until fragrant and beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Cool.
3. Crush the toasted spices with garlic, salt & oregano to make a paste. (The recipe says to use a mortar and pestle, but we used our mini Cuisinart)
4. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in the orange juice, lime juice, lemon juice, sherry, and olive oil.
5. Place the pork in a large resealable plastic bag. Pour citrus marinade over the meat and seal.
6. Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours, turning the bag over occasionally.

The next day:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Farenheit
2. Transfer the pork and marinade to a roasting pan, and place in the oven.
3. Roast for about 2 and 1/2 hours (or until an instant read thermometer inserted in the center reads 145 degrees Farenheit), basting with pan juices occasionally. Add small amounts of water to the pan if it dries out.
4. Transfer the pork to a carving board, cover loosely with foil, and let sit for 15 min.
5. Carve and serve.

World Class Belgian Waffles

E & I got a waffle maker as a wedding gift. I LOVE waffles. E didn't love them as much as I do... but then on his birthday weekend, I used my mom's recipe and made some Belgian waffles for him. He is now a waffle lover.

With our waffle maker, this recipe makes between 5 and 6 waffles. And if you buy some strawberries & whipped cream and some bacon and/or sausage, you will have an even better breakfast :) It's also a lot cheaper to make these at home than it is to go out to one of those expensive breakfast places. And you don't have to change out of your pjs or wait an hour to be seated in the restaurant (the good places usually have long waits on weekend mornings).

Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 3 TBSP. sugar
• 1 pckg of rapid rise yeast
• 3/4 tsp. of salt
• 2 c. warm milk (110 degrees) - luckily we got a digital thermometer as a wedding gift :)
• 3 lg. eggs separated
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 2 tsp. of vanilla
• Pam spray
  

Directions:
1. Beat the egg whites until they are fluffy
2. In a large bowl combine all ingredients in the order listed, except for the egg whites (but DO add the egg yolks).
3. Mix until just blended.
4. Fold in the egg whites.
5. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. (We heated our oven to 200 degrees and then turned it off. Then we put the bowl in the oven with a kitchen towel over it and left it in there for 30 minutes.)
6. Spray your waffle iron with Pam and pre-heat it.
7. Pour 3/4 cup to 1 cup of the mix onto the iron (or follow the waffle iron's instructions).

Cheese and Bean Quesadillas

This recipe made good use of some salsa we already had in our fridge, the leftover tortillas from the burritos, and the rest of the Monterey Jack cheese. It also made a good dinner (and lunch leftovers). The rest of the ingredients were inexpensive.

Ingredients

• 1 - 15 oz. can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup of salsa (we used the Archer Farms Medium salsa - cheap at Target)
• 1 tsp. of chili powder
• 4 (10-inch) flour tortillas
• 1 cup of shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/4 cup of chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup of sour cream
• Pam or other nonstick cooking spray
  

Directions:
1. Place beans in a medium saucepan and mash with a potato masher or fork.
2. Stir in salsa and chili powder.
3. Cook over medium heat until bubbly.
4. Reduce heat to low.
5. Simmer 5 minutes.
6. Spray a griddle with nonstick cooking spray.
7. Heat over medium heat until hot.
8. Brush 1 tortilla lightly on both sides with water.
9. Heat on griddle until lightly browned, then turn the tortilla.
10. Spread with 1/2 of bean mixture, sprinkle with 1/2 of the cheese and 1/2 of the cilantro.
11. Top with a second tortilla and press lightly.
12. Brush top of tortilla with water.
13. Carefully turn quesadilla to brown & crisp the second side.
14. Remove from heat, and then repeat with the remaining 2 tortillas.
15. Cut each quesadilla into wedges and then serve with sour cream.

Spicy Bean and Cheese Burritos

E & I have been on a strict grocery budget lately, and in order to stay within our budget we have been eating around themes. Right now it's been a mostly vegetarian Mexican theme.

We used this recipe, courtesy of Rachel Ray. It was really yummy. It provided us with a good, and pretty easy to make dinner. And we had leftovers the next day for our lunches :)

Ingredients:

• 1 TBSP. EVOO
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 - 15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed
• 1/3 cup of pickled jalapenos, drained and chopped
• 1/2 cup of Mexican beer (we just used a non-Mexican beer that we had in our fridge)
• 1 - 15.25 oz can of corn kernels, rinsed (we used half a bag of frozen corn since we had it in our freezer)
• 1 - 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, rinsed
• Juice from 1/4 of a lime
• 4 large flour tortillas
• 1 1/2 cups of shredded monterey jack cheese (if you buy a $2 block of cheese at Target, it will yield about 2.5 cups of shredded cheese which is why we ate cheese and bean quesadillas later on that week)

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, heat the EVOO over medium high heat.
2. Add garlic and cook until golden (about 1 min.)
3. Stir in the black beans & jalapenos and cook, lightly mashing the mixture against the side of the pan, for 2 minutes.
4. Stir the beer into the black bean mixture & bring to a boil.
5. Cook, continuing to mash, until thickened (about 10 min.)
6. Stir in the corn and tomatoes and cook, stirring, until heated through (about 5 min.)
7. Stir in the lime juice, and then set this aside.
8. Lay the tortillas on a "work surface" (plate/counter).
9. Sprinkle 1/4 of the cheese in the center, and then scoop 1/4 of the bean mixture on top of the cheese.
10. Fold the tortilla up, "burrito-style".
11. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
12. Place the burritos folded side down in the skillet and cook until brown on each side (about 1 minute).

Long time, no update

It's been a busy month. I've managed to put off a lot of schoolwork this month, and yet I still haven't managed to update my blog. I'll make up for it by posting several recipes :)