Friday, December 17, 2010

Recipe Friday!!!

I am totally lacking for recipe inspiration right now. A little over a week ago, I had to go on a "dairy-free" diet. Gideon has been having some issues and they think it is because he has a milk allergy. It has been super hard on me. I have been starving for the last week.. not really starving. But super hungry because there just isn't a whole lot at our house that I can eat. And eating "dairy-free" is crazy expensive. Dairy is in EVERYTHING!!! If you don't believe me, go look in your pantry and I bet that 80% of what is in there has some sort of dairy in it. There is a whole list of ingredients that I never even knew were dairy. So here I am on a dairy-free diet. I made a big batch of the soup from "The Soup Diet" and every day I just add a few ingredients to it so its not so blah! I guess its a good way to loose the rest of my pregnancy weight. haha. But I am also not looking forward to going to my parents house on Tuesday, where my dad has been baking cookies and treats for a week. All contain butter, therefore, off limits for me. Bahumbug!!! I go back to the doctor on the 27th to get a little more information, so we will see if this has to continue. 


Anyways, on to recipe friday. This recipe is NOT dairy free, but a super yummy recipe that we love!!! Its fairly healthy also. 

Mediterranean Chicken Bake


1 lb chicken breast, cooke and cubed --- I usually substitute 1 lb of rotisserie chicken meat
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium zucchinis cut into 1/8 inch slices
1/2 cup orzo pasta (uncooked)
1/2 cup water
2 plump roma tomatoes, chopped
1 jar (26 oz) roasted tomato and garlic pasta sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
6 sheets frozen phyllo (filo) pastry sheets, thawed from a 1 lb box
3 Tbsp. butter, melted


1. Heat oven to 400 degrees and spray a 2 quart glass casserole with non-stick spray. In a skillet cook chicken for 8-10 minutes, until no longer pink. Then stir in zucchini, onion, pasta and water. Cook 5-6 minutes until veggies are tender crisp. 


2. Stir in tomatoes, pasta sauce, cheese, and Italian seasoning. Spoon mixture into casserole. Brush the top of each phyllo sheet with melted butter. Crumple each sheet and place it on top of mixture. (Reference the picture above for crumpling)


3. Bake uncovered for 20-30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.


Happy cooking!!!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Recipe Friday!!!


Our friends Sean and Jenny have been talking about this Tomato Pie for quite some time... they said it was delicious. At first I couldn't imagine how it would be. Even as I was making it, I wasn't sure that I was going to like it. Not only did we like it, we loved it! This is going on the list as one of my favorite recipes. I added a few things to the Recipe that I got from Jenny and here is what I got!!!







Tomato Pie










1 9 in' pie crust **
1/2 yellow or red onion, chopped*
3-4 tomatoes, sliced horizontally, squeeze to remove excess juice, the roughly chop
1/4 cup fresh basil, sliced
2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, and or monterey jack)
1 cup mayonnaise
fresh ground salt and pepper


1. Preheat oven to 400 and pre-bake the pie shell for 8-10 minutes
2. place chopped tomatoes, onion, and basil in the pie shell. Cover with salt and pepper
3. Mix mayonnaise with the cheese and spread over the top. 
4. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown on top. 


* Next time I make this, I will double the amount of onions and caramelize them before hand. The onions were pretty raw after it was baked and they kind of over powered the pie. 


**I made my own pie crust for this, but it would be faster to use a pre-made crust. 


Pie Crust - Betty Crocker
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
2-3 tablespoons cold water
1/2 teaspoon salt


1. Mix salt and flour together in a small bowl. 
2. Cut in shortening using a pastry blender or pulling 2 forks in opposite directions until its the size of small peas.
3. Sprinkle with cold water one tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork until pastry is moistened and comes away from the sides of the bowl.
4. Gather pastry and press into a ball. Refrigerate for 45 minutes.
5. Place ball on lightly floured surface and roll out with floured rolling pin until its about 2 inches bigger than pie pan. 
6. Fold pastry into fourths and place in pie pan. Unfold the pastry and trim the overhanging edge 1 inch back from rim of pie pan. 
7. Roll and crease the edge of the pastry even with the edge of the pie pan. 




Happy Cooking!!!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Its been a while

I was just looking at my blog and realized that the last 3 posts are recipes. Dang it! I am totally falling down on the job. Actually, last week I was preparing what I thought would be a great post. I have started a new Bible study and the post was about something profound that God has been teaching me about my "image." I have a good portion of it written, but have all of a sudden totally lost all direction. I still want to post it, but am praying for a little more vision and insight. It is one of those complex things and I want my point to be very clear. I think you all will love it and I hope you are inspired by it. I will hopefully have some clarity and direction soon so that I can share it will you all.

Now, since it has been before Thanksgiving since I have updated you here is what is going on in our world... Its a lot, so take a deep breath....

Right before Thanksgiving, Gideon discovered his toes!!! He is getting so much bigger and much more alert. I seriously am in awe of how quickly kiddos change and grow. Jared and I have been also noticing that Gid is filling out in his cheeks and as of his 4 month check up weighed in at 15 lb 3 oz. He is such a good baby. Every morning when I get him out of his crib, I am greeted with the biggest smile and little coo, that if he could talk would say "Good morning mama, I love you so much!!" =) He just brings so much joy to our lives. A lot of nights, Jared and I lay on the floor with him and just giggle with him. It is so much fun!


My parents came up for Thanksgiving, which was so much fun! We had gotten a ton of snow right before they came and we thought that it might hider them from coming. But thank goodness the roads were clear and them came up anyway. Some of Jared's parent's friends also came up from Boise. We sure had a full house. We cooked a 20 lb. turkey at our house and my mother-in-law cooked a fresh ham at her house and then we all ate over there for sake of space. It was such a wonderful time spent with my parents. They even installed a new hot water heater for us.

For my birthday, Jared gave me some cash and three choices. 1. A new oven. 2 A new washer and dryer OR 3. New clothes. Some of you may think I'm crazy, but I chose number 1. I have been wanted a new oven for our house since the day we moved in. Our old oven was such a piece. The handle was dented and the bottom element was on its last leg. So I opted for the oven. Home Depot was having a really great sale so I got a really good deal. I was so proud of myself. It was delivered about a week ago. I love it. It came just in time for holiday baking.. my fav!!!!
This is probably the best picture of the old stove that I have... me lookin' real good. bahaha not. I am however 16 weeks prego in the pic. =) You can even see the dent in the handle. 

Brand new!!! I love it.


For the past year, Jared and I have been talking about inviting a bunch of people over to our house to have "Saturday Night Dinner." At first, Jared was the one who was super into it and couldn't wait to have people over. I was newly pregnant and had absolutely no energy. It was all I could do to work 40 hours a week at Starbucks. I was not interested in cooking for our friends let alone entertaining period. After a year of talking about it, we finally made it happen. With the help of social media, aka Facebook, we invited all of our friends who live close. We ended up having 19 adults and 7 babies (13 months to 3 weeks). We have a pretty small house, so it was funny to see that many people all crammed in here. I am bummed that I didn't get any pictures of the madness!!! We had so much fun connecting and sharing a meal together. I made 2 kinds of Chili and Texas Sheet Cake. Other people brought appetizers, salad, drinks, and some yummy pulled pork sandwiches! I cannot wait to do it again next month!!!

LIke I said above, I started a new Bible study with a great group of women. The study is called 5 aspects of Woman. I have really enjoyed it. The ladies that are doing it with me are a totally random mix, but it was such a God thing that we all came together like we did. I am looking forward to digging deep with all of them. I just can feel that God has great plans in it all.

Well, I think that is about all for now.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Muffins on a Monday

Monday's are so drab sometimes. Its always the day that it takes me 30 minutes to get out of bed. I drink twice as much coffee as I do on a normal day. I usually don't get showered until about noon. And I'm lucky if I make it out of the house before 4.

One thing I do love to do on Mondays is bake muffins for the week! I love experimenting with using different ingredients. Last week I had some friends over and made these muffins:


                         (The pictures doesn't quite do them justice, they were really yummy!!!!)

Mix in Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla


1. In large bowl mix together all dry ingredients. 
2. Melt butter and whisk together with sour cream, egg, and vanilla.
3. Stir butter mixture into flour mixture until just combined **
4. Divide batter among greased muffin tins
5 Bake at 400 for 20 minutes until golden brown and tester comes out clean


** The great thing about these muffins is that you can mix-in your favorite goodies. For this recipe, I used 1 cup sweetened Coconut, 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup dried cranberries. 
You could also add:

  • 1 cup drained pineapple and 1 cup coconut
  • 1 mashed or chopped banana and 1 cup simi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup toasted almonds, 1 cup cranberries, and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Hope you enjoy!

Happy Baking!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Lettuce wraps

Recipe Friday is back!! 


I made these lettuce wraps a few weeks ago. They were really yummy. I found quite a few recipes and took a few things from all of them and this is what I came up with. 


I will say that although this recipe is quite delicious, it does take a while to prepare. There are just a lot of steps involved. I saved myself about 15 minutes by just buying a rotisserie chicken from Costco and using the meat from that instead of raw chicken breasts. 



Lettuce Wraps


Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless Chicken breasts. (or 2 breasts off rotisserie chicken if short on time)
3 tbsp. oil
1 Cup water chestnuts
2/3 Cup mushrooms
3 tbsp. chopped onion
1 tsp. minced garlic
4-5 leaves of iceberg lettuce


Special sauce:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp. hoisin sauce
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1-3 tsp. Sriracha hot sauce

2 tbsp. ketchup
1 tbsp. hot mustard (mixd with 2 tsp. water)


Stir Frying sauce:
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp. rice wine vinegar


Directions:
1. Start by making the special sauce. Add the sugar to the water and stir until dissolved. Then add hoisin, soy, oil, and vinegar. (You will add the Sriracha and hot mustard to the mix at the end.) Mix well and then put in refrigerator. 
2. Add oil to large frying pan or wok. Add chicken and cook 4-6 minutes on each side until cook trough out. Set aside to cool.
3. Keep oil in the pan hot while you mince water chestnuts, onion, and mushrooms to the size of peas. 
4. Mix soy, brown sugar, and vinegar for stir fry sauce.
5. When the chicken is cool, mince it as you did the vegetables.
6. Add another tbsp of oil to the pan. Then add chicken and vegetables
7. Add stir fry sauce and fry together for 1-2 minutes. 
8. Add mixture to lettuce "cups" and top with special sauce. ( You can also top with chopped peanuts and/or chow mien noodles.)




I hope that you enjoy them as much as we did!


Happy Cooking!!!