Menu Monday: Pizza Factory-like Bread Twists

When I saw this recipe for Pizza Factory bread sticks, I knew I had to try it.  But when I read through it, I was feeling too impatient to wait for the dough to rise that long.  So I used my pizza dough recipe for the dough instead, which turned out perfect because it was just enough dough to make 6 bread twists - one for each of us!  The whole family loved them, they tasted amazing!  (I can't honestly say whether they taste like Pizza Factory's, we don't often go there.  We only really want the bread twists, so that doesn't seem like enough reason to eat there very often.)  So, I wrote everything down as I did it (which I never remember to do, but did this time!), that way I can share it with you.  Here it is. 

Bread Twists

Dough:
3 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp yeast
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup hot water

Mix ingredients in order listed. Use enough flour to make a soft dough that isn't sticky. Knead lightly for 4 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Meanwhile, melt another 1/2 cup butter. 


Divide dough into 6 equal parts (about 4 oz each).  Roll dough into 16-18 inch "snakes."  Moisten the top of your dowel, about one inch from the end and begin wrapping the dough around loosely. Moisten at the end, too. Pinch to secure.  Leave about 5 inches at the end of the dowel.  Hang over the edge of 9x13 pans with all the dough inside the pan.  Brush with a small amount of melted butter.  Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.  Meanwhile, add seasonings to remaining melted butter. 

Seasoning:
(1/2 cup melted butter)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/8 tsp Italian seasoning
1 1/2 tsp grated Parmesan (in the can)

Brush mixture on bread twists after baking and place upright in vase to serve.  

Menu Monday: March Calendar, and a recap

Here's this month's calendar, ready to print if you're looking for ideas.  As before (but working properly this time, I hope), you can download the PDF and print it, then adjust with a pencil if you need to, or download the Google doc and make adjustments before printing. 

download PDF

download Google Document

Did you wonder about how the new recipes from last month turned out?  Here's a quick recap of the ones I was planning to try out: 

Beef Stew

Baked Pasta with Ham and Cheesy-Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

Pizza Factory Bread Sticks

Avocado Chicken Parmesan 

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

 

I posted about the beef stew, it is totally a new favorite.   

 

The baked pasta was fine, but I think the strong cheese flavor and the texture of the noodles (Adam felt I overcooked them a bit) was a turn-off for the rest of the family.  It didn't make it into the recipe box, and I doubt I'll make it again.  

Instead of making the the bread sticks 100% from the recipe, I used my pizza dough recipe for the dough and tweaked it a bit.  I'll post my modified recipe soon because it was a huge success, and it's back on this month's menu. 

I did wimp out with the avocado chicken parm, but I made a version of this Chicken Parmesan Bake (the one that's floating around Pinterest and all over the internet) instead, and it was a huge success.  Also back on the menu. 

And... I haven't made the chowder yet, but it's on the revised menu for this week, so I'll keep you posted!

The new (to me) recipes for March are: 

Chicken Ranch Tacos (not sure if I will do it as posted or in the slow cooker as suggested in the comments, we'll see...)

Pizza Bites (I've actually made these before, but this time I'm going to write out how I do it so I can post about it)

Sliced Baked Potatoes

Honey Lime Chicken Wings (maybe)

Chicken Pot Pie (this is a new incarnation of an old recipe that I'm pretty excited about)

Honey Mustard Chicken

Lemon Garlic Grilled Chicken (I am totally loving this warmer weather...bring on the grill recipes!)

Roasted Garlic Chicken Pesto Pizza (I will probably have to make the kids their own pizza and make this just for us grown-ups, but the picture is so beautiful my mouth waters, I really want to try it)

Okay, if you're still hanging in here, I've got a bonus tip for you!  I figured it out this month while trying to use up stuff from my pantry, but it may not be anything new to anyone but me.  I like a good mix of new recipes and really easy stuff.  So here's something that fits in with my Italian cheater dinners.  Do you like creamy pesto?  Like Pasta Factory creamy pesto?  We do.  So a while ago I bought a pesto packet and thought I'd try to figure out how to make it.  But instead, I just dumped it into a pan with cooked cubed chicken and a jar of Ragu Alfredo sauce and we ate it over bowties.  Yup.  Easy peasy.  And yummy.  Not quite like Pasta Factory.  But still good.

Menu Monday: Chicken Noodle Soup

I know I promised you beef stew, but it just worked out to have chicken noodle soup instead.  This is what I meant when I said I switch things around, etc.  Thursday night it was easier to pick up a rotisserie chicken than make chicken noodle, and I knew that if I did I could make a much better chicken noodle a different night with the leftover rotisserie chicken.  So here it is, my chicken noodle soup recipe, refined over the last ten years.  (And hopefully we'll get back to beef stew soon, it was really yummy!) 

Chicken Noodle Soup

8 cups chicken broth (I used my rotisserie chicken to make 6 cups of it just the way Our Best Bites describes, then added a couple more cups from a carton)
2 1/2 cups wide egg noodles (although I've heard homemade are awesome, I'm just not quite that much of a Martha!)
2-3 carrots (or about 6 baby carrots), chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1/4-1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups frozen corn and/or peas (or 1 can corn)
1 tsp minced garlic
1-1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
2-3 twists fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
3 cups cooked chopped chicken (I used my leftover rotisserie and some other leftover shredded chicken from earlier in the week)
1/4 cup cold water or chicken broth
1/3 cup cornstarch

1.  Bring 8 cups broth to boil.  Add noodles, carrots, celery, corn, onion, and garlic and simmer until noodles are almost tender. 
2.  Add chicken and seasonings.  Heat through.
3.  Mix cold water/broth with cornstarch and gradually add to soup,stirring constantly.
4.  Heat through and serve.  (It's really great with rolls, like these rolls.) 

Keep in mind that the noodles will soak up the broth and become a mushy mess, so if you want to make a big batch, boil the noodles separately in water and add them to the portion you're eating right away.  Then store the extra noodles and soup separately and add them when reheating. 

Menu Monday: February Dinner Calendar

I think it's so much easier to get dinner on the table if I plan ahead, so I've been making monthly calendars of our dinners and shopping by what I've planned.  I rarely follow them to the letter, in fact I'm lucky if I actually make three planned dinners in a week, and I frequently switch them around because of schedules, lack of ingredients, or whatever, but at least I have something planned and then I can usually remember to get the ingredients when I'm at the store.

I hadn't been really consistent with this in the past because a whole month of empty calendar squares is intimidating.  But then I started leaving one day a week empty (Saturday).  Then if we decided to go out to eat, I didn't feel bound to the calendar because I knew we could eat that dinner on Saturday switch them around.  My next discovery I have to credit to Echo because she told me that once a week they were eating breakfast for dinner, and I got to thinking of our dinners in categories and putting one of each category in each week.  Lots of people do this on the same day each week, i.e. Taco Tuesday or Friday Night Pizza, etc.  I am more flexible than this and just put it somewhere in the week.  Our categories are Pasta, Taco/Mexican, Asian, Soup (in the winter, Grilling in warm months), and Meat and Potatoes or Casserole.  I was doing breakfast for dinner, too, but I've started putting in miscellaneous dinners instead and putting breakfast on Saturdays, then I can make a big breakfast on the weekend or substitute it for a dinner another time in the week if I want to.

Every family likes different dinners, and different types of foods, but I found it was nice to use someone's ideas to get me started, so I'm posting February's dinner calendar here in two formats.  One in PDF that is in a cute font so you can just print it and post it on your fridge, and make changes with a pencil, and one in a document form so you can type in any changes you'd like to make before printing.  I'll try to post one each month since I make one for our family anyway.  I'll make an effort to provide links to the recipes when I can, but if you ever want a recipe just put it in the comments and I'll post it!

download PDF

download Google Document

Edited to add:

I forgot to mention one of the biggest helps in planning dinners: requests!  Every month I ask for requests, and it has really changed how I cook.  I found that Adam was asking for childhood favorites (hamburger gravy, tater tot casserole, shepherd's pie, etc.), and I had stopped making them because I felt like I had "outgrown" them.  But our kids hadn't been exposed to them at all, so now I'm making an effort to bring them back.  I also add in one request from each child, and I have gotten some interesting requests.  Like chicken noodle soup by candlelight. Or toast.  This month is a repeat of last month: chicken nuggets and fries, orange chicken, and curry.  

Also by request, here are links to recipes for most of the things on the calendar.  If I didn't include a link, it's probably because I cheat with that dinner (usually a store-bought sauce or it's a standby, etc.) or I figure everyone has a favorite recipe for it (like pancakes or shepherd's pie, for example).  But if you want to know how I make something and I didn't include a link, let me know (comments, Facebook, email, whatever) and I'll post it.  Even if it's admitting that I dumped a can of something and stirred.  Because I know you guys love me and won't think anything of that! 

Things I've posted about before: 

Orange Chicken, Stir Fry

Pasta Shapes with Marinara, Chicken Alfredo Bowties

Taco Soup, Taco Salad, Tacos

Heart-Shaped Pizza

Chili

Crepes

Honey-Pecan Pork Chops

Chicken Satay

Baked Potato Soup

Roast Beef

Peanut Noodles (I seriously need to update this post...remind me if I forget!)

And here are the new recipes I'm trying out this month (thank you, Pinterest!).  If they turn out*, I'll blog about them: 

Beef Stew *this is the one exception; I've actually tried this one out just recently and loved it.  I'm planning to share my thoughts on it after I make it again in February.  

Baked Pasta with Ham and Cheesy-Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

Pizza Factory Bread Sticks

Avocado Chicken Parmesan (I can tell you right now, I may wimp out on this one...Lily and I are the only avocado-lovers in the family.)  

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

Heaven in a Cinnamon Roll

Okay, I know it's been a while, but I think you will forgive me for being away so long (and for all the things you've missed, like two big birthdays, but which I promise to catch you up on eventually) when you try this recipe.  Adam said it was the best cinnamon roll he's ever had, and that is super high praise coming from the cinnamon roll prince, son of the cinnamon roll king.

The majority of the credit for this recipe goes to Crystal Denton who gave a cinnamon roll demonstration at my ward's Super Saturday in September.  I used her recipe (and some of her tips) for the basis, although I changed a couple of things and halved the recipe and made my own filling and adapted a cream cheese frosting from an orange roll recipe I love...so, yeah.  I think I can call this one mine now.  I warn you, this is not healthy and should be avoided if you're trying to lose weight!  And it takes a while, this is no quick dessert.  But it is worth the time and the calories, if you have them to spare. 

Rachel's Cinnamon Rolls

Dough: 

1 1/2 tbsp dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 tbsp sugar (optional)

1 3/4 cups hot water

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup margarine or butter (I used butter)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg (The original recipe calls for one egg and I was halving the recipe, I would recommend separating the egg, but I had a helper, and we ended up with about half the egg in the bowl anyway!)

1/4 cup scalded milk

1/3 cup potato flakes

4-7 cups flour (Don't go by the measurement with this, go by the consistency of the dough, more or less as needed!)

Sprinkle the yeast into 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand 15-20 minutes.  (A tablespoon of sugar in the yeast will help it proof quicker.)  Scald milk in a glass measuring cup in the microwave (30 seconds should do it), and add hot tap water to make 2 cups.  In mixing bowl combine milk mixture with salt, butter, sugar, egg, and potato flakes.  Add 2 cups of flour and blend thoroughly.  Add proofed yeast and blend.  Add remaining flour gradually until it cleans the edge of the bowl.  Dough should be very soft, much softer than you might usually let it be with bread, so if it isn't coming away from the bowl and it begins to get tough, stop adding flour!  Knead an additional 3 minutes.  Place dough in greased bowl and cover.  Let rise until doubled in size (an hour or so, depending on how warm your kitchen is).  

Filling:

2 cups brown sugar, packed

2 tbsp cinnamon

1 cup butter or margarine, softened (I used butter)

While dough is rising, cream filling ingredients together in a large bowl.  Grease two large jelly roll pans.  Punch dough down and roll out into a large rectangle.  Here's where I'm going to guess; I rolled mine out to about 12 inches by 24 inches, but I would recommend rolling it thinner, maybe 18 by 24?  Although our rolls were very huge, and very delicious. Spread filling over entire rectangle, leaving about one inch along a long side of the rectangle uncovered.  This is a lot of filling, expect it to make a giant mess of your pans, but we really like a gooey cinnamon roll at our house, so this is double what most recipes use.  Roll tightly into a log, leaving the bare end for last, and wetting it with your finger before pinching closed.  Use dental floss to cut 1 inch sections, placing rolls into prepared pans (you should get about 2 dozen rolls, unless yours are as large as ours, in which case you'll get 18).  Cover pans with a damp dish towel and allow to rise 25-35 minutes more.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake rolls 18-22 minutes (but check them at 15, they shouldn't be any more than a little golden around the edges!).  Bake one pan at a time, or if you must bake both at once, switch the top and bottom pans halfway through to make sure they are evenly cooked. 

Frosting: 

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened (I ran out of butter and used margarine)

1 tsp vanilla

2-3 cups powdered sugar (I always eyeball the sugar, adding more until I like the consistency)

While the rolls are baking, mix the frosting ingredients together with a hand mixer.  Spread on rolls while still warm, there should be enough to really pile it on. 

You're welcome. 

Tomato Master

I have to preface this post by saying that Isaiah doesn't like tomatoes.  As in, "Ew, gross, tomatoes?!"  But last school year he read a book about tomatoes in guided reading that had "recipes" in it (there were no actual amounts listed, and no precise directions), and he came home and made his own recipe book featuring those recipes, as well as a few others he made up and learned from us. I am heartbroken that I can't find the recipe book; it had "Written by a 7-year-old!" in a star burst on the cover, and hand-drawn pictures throughout.  It was truly awesome.  But, while we cannot currently find the book itself, we have made the recipes!  One night, as a reward, Isaiah and I made his "chunky tomato sauce pizza" and "tomato salsa."  And despite his dislike for tomatoes, they were a big hit! 

(And *ahem* although I know you want the recipes, but because we couldn't find the recipe book, we mostly just made them up as we went. You could pretty much google "pico de gallo" and "tomato sauce" and go with the most basic recipes to duplicate what we made.  Well, mostly there was some tweaking going on to make the tomatoes less tomato-y...)

Recipes (One Old, One New)

My mom invited me over to make cookies with her in her brand new awesome oven, and she said we could make whatever cookie I wanted!  I can't remember the last time I made cookies that were purely the kind of cookie I wanted, not what one of the kids requested, or what would make Adam's eyes light up, or what would be good for this church function or that family party, etc.  Well, it's been so long (probably 3 years or more!) that I had forgotten what my favorite cookie was, I had to dredge it up from the back corners of my memory...oh, yes, chocolate, it always has to be chocolate for me.  Here's the recipe we made:

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cups flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended.  Mix in the chocolate chips.  Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven , or just until set.  Cool slightly on cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. 

I stopped making these cookies because Adam would complain about how they would go stale so quickly.  So just be prepared, just make as many as you're going to eat in a day or two, they won't be any good past that.  (Just so you know, I've since learned to just eat them all to avoid them going stale, cookies don't last a day at our house anymore!) 

(That night we also made this, which I've posted before.  Yum.)

I've also recently found a new favorite recipe.  I've told you about our love for Red and White Chili, and I love to eat it, but I don't always get around to getting the crockpot started in time to enjoy it for dinner.  So, I was on the lookout for something similar, but that I could whip up quickly.  Here's the delicious (maybe even better than the old favorite) new favorite:

(So, maybe not my best food picture ever.  But the baby started crying, and the kids needed something, so the sour cream kinda melted into the chili...ah, well...)

Southwest White Chicken Chili

adapted from this recipe on allrecipes.com

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into cubes (or you could cheat and use 3 cans of chicken from Costco, but I would never do that...okay, that's exactly what's in that picture above)

4 teaspoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/4 large onion, chopped (you could totally add more if you like onion...like, a whole onion)

1 small can diced green chilies (you could also add a jalapeno if you like heat, but this was already a bit spicy for our sensitive Katie)

1 can cream of chicken soup plus

2 cans water (so, would that be a cup and a half?  not sure...)

1 1/2 cups frozen whole kernel corn

2 cans white kidney beans (cannellini), rinsed and drained

shredded Cheddar cheese and sour cream, to garnish

Heat the oil in a large saucepan (or small pot) over medium high heat, then saute the onions until translucent.  Add the chicken and cook until golden (or if you are using canned chicken, just drain the chicken and dump it in with everything else).  Add the remaining ingredients except the cheese and sour cream, and heat through.  Garnish and serve! 

So, looking at this, it's a lot like my taco soup recipe: just dump in a bunch of cans and heat it up.  That's about as easy as it gets, but it really tastes yummy. 

Wake up to yum...

Some more recipes, hope you're all in as cooking a mood as I have been (or maybe it's an eating mood?).  My fridge is about to explode, though, so I think we'll need to eat leftovers for a couple of days and recover before trying the next new recipe!  Today's recipes were made for a brunch with my bestest girls.  Seriously girls, we need to get together more often.  (Though next time, I promise I'll put the quiche in the oven earlier, and we'll try not to have any bee stings!) 



Broccoli Quiche, Crepes, and Black Forest Crepes

Broccoli Quiche based on this recipe from Allrecipes.com

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, minced (I used half an onion, I'm not super fond of onion)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups chopped fresh broccoli
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
4 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups milk 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Melt butter over medium heat in a large pan.  Add onion, garlic, and broccoli, and cook slowly until vegetables are soft.  Press cheese into crust, then spoon vegetables over the cheese.  Combine eggs and milk and add salt and pepper.  Pour egg mixture over vegetables and cheese (depending on the size of your pan, you may have extra egg mixture--just make note to adjust amounts if so).  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until center has set (which for me was about 60 minutes, but I was cooking two quiches). 


This was super yummy!  I have had 3 slices today, and I know I'm not the only one who went back for seconds...
 
Crepes
from Allrecipes.com
 
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup flour
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
 
In a blender combine eggs, milk, flour, salt and oil.  Process until smooth. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.  Heat a skillet over medium heat and brush with oil.  Pour 2-4 tbsp of batter into pan, tilting to completely coat the surface of the pan.  Cook 2 to 5 minutes, turning once, until golden.  Repeat with remaining batter. 
 
These take a bit of time.  That little bitty amount of batter took me about a half an hour to cook up, so don't cook them while your family or guests are waiting impatiently to eat (unless you're much faster or more talented than I am, which is entirely possible!).  Much better to cook them ahead, slipping a square of waxed paper or parchment paper in between each crepe, then refrigerate.  You can always warm them up (in the microwave or oven) before serving. 
 
There are lots of ways you can eat crepes.  My family's favorite is to roll strawberries up inside, then sprinkle with powdered sugar and dollop with whipped cream or whipped topping.  They are also yummy spread with Nutella and filled with bananas.  You can go the peanut butter and jelly route.  Or the diabetic special with syrup, powdered sugar, and whipped cream--Katie's creation.  Or if you're in the mood for a savory crepe you can fill it with ham and cheese, eggs and bacon, or whatever else your heart desires. 
 
Black Forest Crepes
from Hershey's Classic Recipes
 
3 eggs
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup light cream or half-and-half
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp flour
3 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter or margarine, melted and cooled
Cherry pie filling
Chocolate sauce (recipe below)
Sweetened whipped cream
 
1.  Combine eggs, water and light cream in blender or food processor; blend 10 seconds.  Add flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and butter; blend until smooth.  Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes. 
2. Spray 6-inch crepe pan lightly with cooking spray; heat over medium heat.  For each crepe, pour 2-3 tbsp batter into pan; lift and tilt pan to spread batter.  Return to heat; cook until surface begins to dry. Loosen crepe around edges; turn and lightly cook other side.  Stack crepes, placing wax paper between crepes.  Keep covered. 
3.  Just before serving, place 2 tbsp pie filling onto each crepe; roll up.  Place crepes on dessert plate.  Prepare Chocolate Sauce; spoon over crepes.  Garnish with sweetened whipped cream. 
 
Chocolate Sauce
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/8 tsp salt
 
Stir together sugar and cocoa in a small saucepan; blend in evaporated milk, butter and salt.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat.  Serve warm.  Cover and refrigerate leftover sauce.
 
Yum.  Just yum.  We're not big cherry fans, so we like strawberries (or raspberries!) in these, too.  But even with cherries...mmmm. 
 
Sadly, in the process of writing this post I have gotten up and got another slice of quiche and three more crepes.  I'm going to go roll myself to bed now...

Girl Food

I am in a serious mood for girl time, girl food, and apparently, girl dishes.  So I've been planning some lunches with "my girls" and that's good news for you all who like when I post recipes.  You know what else is good news?  The auto-focus on my camera lense was working again this week, so we have pictures!  Yay! 

This week the occasion was visiting teaching (um, yeah, I am aware that I did my visiting teaching on the 31st of the month, it still counts!).  My partner, Jen, brought the yummiest roasted red pepper soup and cake with strawberries and cream...mmmm, I need to get recipes from her.  And Sallie brought us banana bread...and I need to the recipe from her!  But it was more than just an eat-fest, really, I had so much fun visiting with these awesome ladies and it was the most beautiful day (yes, we are hitting 80s here, my northern friends, you need to come visit). 

So, here we are with the recipes.  First up, a chicken salad that began many moons ago, when I was pregnant with Max and headed to a Stampin' Up retreat...speaking of girls, I sure miss those girls.  Anyway, it was yummy then, and it's yummy now.  And a green salad from one of my long-time "imaginary" girlfriends (she's real, I've just never met her in real life...but we're really friends, I promise).  These are both some of my favorite go-to recipes for potlucks and lunches. 


Check out the floral dishes!  Probably the first floral thing I've owned since marrying Mr. "No Floral, No Way" Adam Ellis.  He insists they will be perfect for all my "tea parties."

 Fruited Curry Chicken Salad
adapted from Allrecipes.com

8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and diced (or a rotisserie chicken and a couple of breasts, or you can even use the canned chicken from Costco)
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped (I use much less, I'm not a fan of too much onion)
2 small apples, peeled, cored and chopped (I like the tartness of Granny Smith)
2/3 cup golden raisins or craisins
2/3 cup seedless grapes, halved (I prefer red when I have golden raisins, green when I have craisins, but usually use just whatever is convenient)
1 cup chopped toasted pecans (I left these out this time and kinda missed them)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper (or a couple of grinds from the grinder)
1 tsp curry powder (I never measure, I just shake, stir, taste and repeat until it tastes good - I know I use much more that it calls for)
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise (again, I don't really measure, I just add it until it's not dry anymore, which I'm certain is more than it calls for)

Mix it all up and serve on croissants or rolls.  Just another side note, I halved this for our lunch this week (there were five of us) and had half of it left.  The original recipe is supposed to serve 16. 

Bookclub Chicken Salad
from Ramona Mathis aka "Mona of the Babyboard"

6-8 chicken breasts (I don't think I've actually made this with the chicken, only as a side, but here are the directions because it would be awesome with chicken in it.)

• Cook chicken breasts for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Cool and cut into small pieces. 

Sugared almonds

• 8 ounces slivered almonds
• 4 tbsp sugar
• In a small skillet, sprinkle sugar over almonds and cook over medium heat until almonds are coated and sugar dissolved. 

Lettuce

• 2 bags European blend salad mix (and/or Spring Mix)
• 1 head Iceberg lettuce (or Romaine), torn into pieces

1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup craisins
1 cup shredded Mozzarella

Toss everything but the almonds, reserving to sprinkle on top.  You will need a gigantor of a bowl, this salad is huge. 

Dressing (The dressing is seriously what makes this salad.  I currently have a mason jar of it in the fridge, just for my own use.)

• 1/4 red onion
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• Finely chop red onion in food processor.  Add sugar, dry mustard, salt, and vinegar and blend until frothy.  Slowly add oil. 

Dressing may be tossed into salad before adding sugared almonds or served separately.  (I prefer to serve it separately because my family is filled with Hidden Valley Ranch snobs that prefer to dress their own....)

I have another lunch planned next week, stay tuned! 

P.S.  I just went back and read this post and I sound at best, ADD, at worst, like I'm hyped up on something.  I promise, I'm not taking anything.  Oh, wait, I ate an entire package of Peeps today...dang Easter candy! 

Magnificent Brownies

Are you itching for a recipe?  Me, too.  How about some chocolate?  Oh, I so need some chocolate right now....

I got this awesome recipe from my sister, Anne, who got it from a friend.  She and I both have never made it with the original frosting, however.  So this is my adaptation.  (Here you go, cute girls from my ward!  The boys can have their pinewood derby, we'll enjoy our brownies....)

Magnificent Brownies
4 cups sugar
4 cups flour
8 eggs
1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups butter, softened
2 cups chocolate chips (I always use milk chocolate, for everything.  If you prefer semi-sweet, use that.)
1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar together.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add flour, cocoa, and salt.  Mix to combine.  Add chocolate chips. 

Grease baking sheet (not a regular cookie sheet, one of those big silver pans, you know what I mean?) and bake at 350 degrees for about 38 minutes.  (The original recipe said 28 minutes, but mine were still a little jiggly at that point.  At 38 minutes they were just barely underdone, enough to make them a tiny bit gooey.)  Cool before cutting. 

Friday Favorites: Our Best Bites

So I was reading Make It and Love It almost a month ago and there was something really interesting going on. The bloggers from Our Best Bites started a miniseries called Kids in the Kitchen.  You really should check it out, there were lots of great ideas for getting kids involved in cooking, and a bunch of fun recipes featured throughout the series.  (We tried the "One Ingredient Ice Cream" and it was pretty good!  Next time, though, it will be with Nutella.)  What happened, though, was that I went to the Our Best Bites blog and started going through recipes like a mad woman.  There were a lot of great ideas...yummy ideas...

Here are two of our new favorites:

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

So yummy and addictive.  This made a ton, really a lot of taquitos.  But they went really, really fast.  I think we had about 4 left over, and Adam wasn't even home for dinner that night.  So, so good. 

Chicken-Bacon Stuffed Pizza Rolls

These were also really good.  I am not a dip-your-pizza-in-ranch girl, but these really must be dipped.  I am well aware of the common opinion that Hidden Valley Ranch made from the packet is superior to Hidden Valley Ranch in the bottle, but our family will just use it from the bottle next time because we like it better.  Just sayin'. 

So, happy cooking, all! 

Taste of Maui

So, Anne was telling me several weeks ago that they had had a "Taste of Maui" night, reliving our vacation (which you can read about here, here, and here) for family and friends through dinner and slide show, and I had to steal her idea.  Last night we had our own Taste of Maui night, thanks to her suggestions, and it was so yummy.  It was also fun to spend time with Echo and her family, and pretend we were eating in the tropics after a cooooldd day with snow! 

If you're tired of soups and hot cocoa, or just wanting a taste of Hawaiian culture, here are the recipes we made.  (I promise, next time I'll remember to get the camera out.  I am so out of the habit of taking pictures, it's sad!)

Kalua Pork
I actually only cooked this for about 8-8.5 hours.  It tasted perfect, though, just like what we had on Maui! 

Chicken Katsu with Katsu Sauce
Okay, so this is Japanese, but they serve it at Da Kitchen and Honolulu Grill, and because it's basically chicken nuggets with a fancy sauce, my kids (and I) like it. 

We also had sticky rice, macaroni salad (not nearly as good as Honolulu Grill's, though, you should try it...) and fresh pineapple.  Yum! 

And for dessert, haystacks.  I found lots of recipes online for these, but I kind of made up my own (Anne gave me the inspiration, though!), and they turned out pretty yummy.  I took a half a bag of sweetened coconut flakes, spread them on a baking sheet in an even, thin layer, then carefully toasted them under the broiler (I actually burned some--this only takes about a minute!).  Then I melted a bag of chocolate chips and a little less than a half a bag of butterscotch chips in a glass bowl in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds.  I stirred it all together, and added a couple of handfuls of chow mein noodles (those little crunchies, those are chow mein noodles, right?).  Next time I'll add some peanuts or something for a little more substance and crunch. 
Stay tuned for some more yummy recipes, and a new favorite source of recipes, later in the week!

Exercise #4: Discovering Unexpected Blessings

Exercise #4: Discovering Unexpected Blessings

Pick one thing in your life to do differently this week.  Maybe it's taking an alternate form of transportation, or trying out that discount store you keep driving past, or experimenting with a new recipe, making something from scratch that you would usually buy "pre-fabbed."  See if there are some unexpected blessings waiting for you when you shake up your life a little. 

This week was supposed to bring us some unexpected blessings, and the thing about unexpected blessings is that they are just that--unexpected.  Blessings you wouldn't have thought you would be getting by changing what you changed. 

Here's Anne's experience:

I have been needing a break from being Mommy 24/7, so I decided this week I'd finally schedule some "Me Time." Porter and I go over to G&G Curry's every week (usually Thursdays but this week it was Wednesday because I wasn't babysitting Reese) and we spend the day watching Port play and chatting. I've never asked them watch Porter without a "good" reason though (like a doctor or dentist appointment) and I felt embarrassed to just say, "Hey, I need to run away for a few hours." I did have some legitimate errands, so after Porter went down for his nap I asked Verna if it would be ok if I headed out to get my ring inspected and shop for a baby shower gift. No problem, of course. So I went to the Masseys Jeweler at the mall and left my ring to get cleaned while I wandered around not really looking at anything. Then I went to the grocery store for a super-duper sale item (which they were out of, of course). Then home to put things in the freezer... Then I decided I may as well vacuum and mop since it's soooo much easier without Porter underfoot. So I ended up just using my two hours doing errands and chores. It was pretty depressing. So I planned to go to a late movie that night after Port went to bed. Only I took too long at Target getting that shower gift beforehand and I got to the theater 10 minutes after the show started... and I really didn't want to sit in the theater alone anyway and not have anyone to discuss it with afterward.


Long story short, I did have Me Time, but it turned out that I used my time a lot differently than I thought I would. At first I was upset that I couldn't even figure out something fun to do by myself, but I shouldn't feel bad if a "break" to me is doing necessary housework unencumbered. It was still a nice change.

So there you go.  It would have been wonderful if Me Time had resulted in feeling free, having a blast, and coming out absolutely refreshed.  (I sure wish for her sake it had been!)  But it didn't.  The unexpected blessing was that Me Time was simply a nice change, being able to do some "necessary housework unencumbered."  And while it wasn't grand, I can imagine it was nice! 

This exercise was a little difficult for me to wrap my head around at first.  I could think of lots of things I wanted to change, but nothing that felt within the realm of possibility with how full my hands have felt with Lily and Max (and Isaiah and Katie, etc.).  Then I lowered my expectations a bit, and started thinking about things I used to do, before I was pregnant with Lily, that have been left behind somewhere.  Maybe instead of doing something completely new, I could do something I used to do and haven't done in a while.  I re-read the exercise, and of course, "experimenting with a new recipe" jumped out at me and then I looked at the dinner menu hanging on the fridge, I gave in to my first thought: I was going to try some new recipes.  It has been almost a full year since I did my last dinner challenge, and in that year we went from having a made-from-scratch dinner five nights a week to Adam cooking at least once and eating out three or four nights a week.  We've been slowly getting back into the routine of cooking (and eating) homemade dinners, but they've been pretty easy favorites, pretty blah.  So this week I made some new things.  Not all of them turned out yummy, but we did find a couple new favorites, so I'm going to share them with you! 

Hold your horses, I know you're anxious (at least I am, trust me these are yummy!), but first let me tell you what my unexpected blessing was this week.  It has to do with my relationship with Adam, and I didn't even realize it until we were talking at dinner tonight.  I cook for Adam.  I always have.  He is the inspiration behind my interest in making our dinners taste good.  Sure, there have been additions to my household, other mouths to feed and please, but his opinion is the one that matters to me.  I was telling him this tonight, and it dawned on me that that was the blessing I received this week: Adam loved the food I made. Well, not all of it, he's a tough critic.  But I did get some high praise from him this week.  And it made me feel pretty good.  Okay, it made me feel about like I did when I received my engraved Valedictorian watch when I graduated from high school: totally awesome.  Successful.  Something I don't feel...almost ever.  And that's an unexpected blessing. 

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce and Coconut Rice
Special thanks to Kelie Stanclift, who made this for lunch one day and then graciously shared the recipe with me because I loved it so much!

I didn't take this picture...but ours looked like this. 

 Marinade:

2 pounds chicken, cut into thin strips
½ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon Garlic powder
1 tablespoon Curry powder
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1 oz. Fish Sauce (I didn't have this on hand so I left it out)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Mix ingredients together and marinade chicken for at least 1 hour.  Skewer and grill on barbecue.  (I cooked mine on a couple of cookie sheets in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes--watch carefully, though!)

Peanut Sauce:
2 cloves minced Garlic
14 oz. Peanut Butter
12 oz. Soy sauce
8 oz. sugar
1 tablespoon Dry sherry
1 tablespoon chili oil blend
1 can coconut milk
1 tablespoon Red Curry Paste

Mix ingredients together in blender and heat over medium heat.  (This makes way more than what you need for the above chicken.  I halved it, and still had twice what I needed.  That's okay, it's in the fridge, awaiting our next batch!  You could also buy the peanut sauce premade.  But this recipe was excellent, Adam felt it made the dinner, and it made the house smell wonderful.)

Serve with Coconut Rice:

When cooking the rice substitute half the water with Coconut milk.  (I did this in my rice cooker, so easy peasy!  Next time I might use more coconut milk than water, it was a very mild coconut flavor.)
 
Chocolate Banana Bread
(found on allrecipes.com)
 
1 cup margarine, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
6 bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup lite sour cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

2.In a large bowl, cream together margarine, sugar and eggs. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking soda and cocoa; mix well. Blend in sour cream and chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3.Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean.

I halved this recipe because we only had 4 bananas (I only used 3), but I sure wish I could have made the full recipe.  We are not big banana bread eaters (even cake and cookies often go stale before we eat an entire batch), but this was gone in a couple of hours.  I won't tell you how much of it I ate....

Cheater Dinners: Tacos

I think it's universal for families to resort to tacos as an easy dinner, so I'll spare you any extra explanation and go straight to the recipes. 

Taco Seasoning
I think I got this recipe out of one of my mom's old cookbooks . . . like a ward cookbook or food storage cookbook or something.  I looooove it.  I almost never use packet taco seasoning because this works great, and I always have the ingredients on hand, where I don't always have a packet. 

2 tsp dry onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp dried oregano

Mix and use to season 1 pound ground beef.  (I like to brown the ground beef, then rinse it to remove extra fat, and add a little water, 1/4-1/3 cup or so, back in with the seasoning and cook until the liquid evaporates.  I also usually add refried beans with the water, and cook it together.  It really helps to stretch the meat farther.) 

We've always made soft shell tacos, but recently we've branched out to hard shell. Soft shell is generally easier for little hands. Everyone has their favorite taco ingredients, so I won't elaborate about that.  But here's a tip for kids that are picky about their food "touching:"  Since Isaiah was little we've served our kids their tacos as more of a buffet.  They get a pile of each ingredient on their plate (and for them, preferably sectioned plates), and eat it finger-food style.  The tomatoes, avocados, and other veggies generally get skipped, and the olives are everyone's favorite, but with a little ranch for dipping, everyone tries something. 

Taco Salad
1/2 lb ground beef, cooked and rinsed
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
1 can kidney beans

2 cups shredded lettuce or green salad mix
1/2 cup grated cheese (Cheddar or Colby Jack)
1/3 cup olives
(optional) 1 tomato, seeded and chopped, 1/2 avocado, sliced lengthwise, sour cream

corn chips (you could fry up some tortilla bowls, but the point of this is easy, right?)

Cook ground beef and drain thoroughly, place back in pan.  To the beef, add the water, chili powder, salt, garlic powder, crushed red pepper and kidney beans.  Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for ten minutes or until liquid is absorbed. 

Allow diners to build salad as desired. 

Taco Soup
It doesn't get any easier than this!

oil
1 small onion, diced

1 lb ground beef
1 can red kidney beans, drain and rinse
1 can corn, drain
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 small can sliced olives
1 pkg taco seasoning (or recipe above)
1 cup water

In a medium soup pot, heat a little oil and fry onions for a moment until translucent.  Add ground beef and brown.  Drain.  Add remaining ingredients and heat thoroughly.  Eat with bite-sized corn chips, cheese and sour cream. 

None of these dinners takes more than 20 minutes, unless you decide to add a side of Spanish rice and corn sprinkled with chili powder.  Mmmmm . . .

Cheater Dinners: Italian

So, everyone knows that "spaghetti" is synonymous with "easy dinner."  But there are lots of ways to make an easy pasta dinner seem like more than just spaghetti. 

Since we were newlyweds I always made my own spaghetti sauce.  Not from tomatoes or anything, just added my own seasoning to tomato sauce.  There are times when this is convenient (like when you don't have bottled sauce), but it has gotten to be an onerous task for me.  This was particularly because I never measured anything, so Adam would sometimes complain that he didn't like it one night, or compliment me saying it was particularly good another night.  I never thought I did anything different, but in the last few months it got to where it was easier to just buy the bottled sauce on sale or with coupons (well, actually both), and have a stash in the pantry.  If you're feeling adventurous, here are the seasonings I use (and rather like) when I do make homemade sauce.  They are in descending order of how much of each I use.  As a side note: I am not a lover of sweet spaghetti sauce, so I don't add sugar like a lot of people.  But there is nothing wrong with that if you love it! 

Italian Sauce
tomato sauce
garlic powder (not salt)
oregano
basil
thyme
parsley
salt
pepper

Heat to boiling, and simmer while cooking pasta to enhance flavor. 

Okay, here are my tricks for making pasta special, when in reality it is just a quick, easy fix for dinner:

Bread
At our house, bread makes or breaks the meal, and particularly so with pasta (hey, no one in our house is counting carbs!).  If there is no bread on the table with a pasta dinner, an unnamed someone will sigh and grab a loaf of bread and butter and plunk it on the table.  Therefore, I have become tricky with the bread that is oh, so essential and often adds too much time and effort to be worth it to me. 

• French bread.  This is our number one choice for an Italian dinner: French bread, sliced lengthwise in half, slathered with butter and sprinkled with garlic and Italian seasoning.  Bake directly on oven rack, buttered side up, for 5-10 minutes at 350 degrees. 
• Crescent rolls.  When there is no opportunity to get to the store for fresh French bread, I say a quick prayer and hope there are crescent rolls in the fridge (I try to keep a couple of refrigerated packages of reduced fat crescent rolls on hand for all kinds of tricky things).  Slice some mozzarella to roll up inside, then sprinkle the rolls with grated Parmesan, garlic, and Italian seasoning.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10ish minutes. 
• White bread.  A plain loaf of white bread will do in a pinch, but I like to butter and season it, then bake it directly on the oven rack for a few minutes. 

Meat

• We like meat in our meals, so if nothing else I will crumble and brown ground beef to add to spaghetti sauce. 
• You can also change things up, like adding chicken instead of beef to marinara sauce. 
• Or, if you have alfredo sauce, sometimes fettuccine alfredo makes a nice side dish for pork or steak or whatever cut of meat you already have in the fridge or freezer. 
• My kids love meatballs, but I really dislike the time it takes to make them.  As a compromise, when Lin's has their big meat sale every 6 months or so, I stock up on ground beef and before freezing it, make a giant batch of meatballs to freeze.  Here's my meatball recipe.  You just lay them out on a cookie sheet and freeze for a few hours, then transfer to gallon-sized Ziploc freezer bags (I like to double bag them to prevent freezer burn).  I'm pretty stingy with the meatballs so they will last a long time.  Or, you can just buy pre-made frozen meatballs to keep in the freezer! 

Pasta
If I have no other way to dress it up, shaped pasta will do the trick.  Bowties are our personal favorites, but angel hair, fettuccine, rotini, ziti, shells and elbow macaroni have all made their way into our pasta meals.  My kids get so excited to have bowties with alfredo and chicken!  And don't forget ravioli and other filled pastas.  You can buy these frozen and just keep them on hand (Costco carries some that's really good).  Here I will suggest trying different flavors of pasta sauce, but only if your kids aren't too picky, like mine.  We have two varieties at our house: white and red.  We're fine with that, though.  And for those special occasions, when you actually want to spend time cooking: lasagna.  I won't even elaborate about lasagna, because it makes me tired just thinking about it.  (I will say, though, that there are lots of frozen lasagnas that are really good, like Stouffer's.) 

Finally...
One thing I struggle with is measuring the right amount of spaghetti.  I'm not usually so off on other types of pasta, but spaghetti can be tricky for me for some reason.  We have a spaghetti measuring tool (it looks a lot like this one) that helps a lot with that. 

And for a quick, easy pasta dish that's really different (and really yummy), here's a fun recipe: Angel Hair Pasta Chicken.  I think I'm actually going to go make that for dinner right now...

Cheater Dinners: Chinese

I was surprised when at my 10 year high school reunion several people associated me with cooking because of my past dinner challenges here on the blog.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I devoted two whole months to recipes and food reviews, but I don't really think of myself as a cook, certainly not a good one anyway.  Just an experimental cook.  So I thought maybe I'd give you a glimpse of what we eat when I'm not trying new things, the shortcuts I take when I'm not much up to cooking (which, admittedly, has been frequently lately), and tricks that get my kids to try things.  Maybe they're not really cheating, just normal, for most of us at least.  We'll start with my family's favorite: Chinese Food. 

Adam and I took a Chinese cooking course early on in our marriage, and we continue to love to find new recipes for our favorites.  Chinese food is really great because it cooks fast, however if you're cooking from scratch it can be time-consuming to prep.  So, here are some of our favorite recipes, and how I cheat to make them less of a process.  One thing I would recommend if you're going to make a lot of Chinese is a rice cooker, unless you are a Minute Rice type of cook.  For our family I cook 2 1/2 cups of white rice, and all I have to do is measure it into the cooker, add water and flip a switch.  It automatically flips to "warm" once it's done so I don't have to even think about it. 

Basic Stir-Fry
This seriously takes me 30 minutes or less, including time to thaw chicken and cut up.  I'll admit that the original version of this recipe has travelled with me since high school foods class! 

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 bag frozen stir-fry vegetables (I actually use about 2/3-3/4 of a bag)
Sauce:
1/4 cup cold water
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp chicken bullion (or you can substitute chicken broth for the the water and omit the bullion)
3 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp grated/minced ginger or 1/8 tsp dried ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced

Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok or large skillet over high heat, then add chicken pieces.  Cook until golden, then remove from pan and set aside.  Add heat remaining oil in pan, and add vegetables.  Cook until vegetables turn bright in color and are no longer frozen.  Return chicken to pan.  Leaving a well in the center of the mixture, add sauce and bring just to a boil, then stir into mixture.  Sauce should thicken slightly, then remove from heat and serve over rice. 

Honey Chicken Stir-Fry
This is a variation on the basic, with a bit of a different cooking process.  I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, and the only thing I change is to use chicken broth instead of water in the sauce. 

Kung Pao Chicken
We have tried so many home-made recipes to find one that has a great flavor, but nothing we've tried meets our standard, so here is my cheater secret: Panda Express Kung Pao Sauce.  We started by buying the orange sauce at the grocery store and when we saw they also made a kung pao sauce, we knew it was gold.  It's not cheap, but neither is pre-prepared pasta sauce, or anything pre-made for that matter.  It's the price you pay for convenience, and it's worth it to me.  Use the amount of chicken breasts you usually would to feed your family, and just add everything else to proportion, according to your tastes. 

chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
flour
salt and pepper
oil for frying
zucchini, cut into bite-sized pieces
peanuts
Panda Express Kung Pao Sauce

Heat an inch of oil in wok for frying.  Put flour, salt and pepper into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag, add chicken pieces and shake to coat.  Sift chicken from excess flour. (Test oil with a small piece of chicken to make sure it is hot enough.)  Remove oil except about 1 tbsp.  Stir-fry zucchini until skin is bright and flesh begins to turn translucent.  Return chicken to pan, add sauce to desired texture, and sprinkle peanuts to taste.  Stir and heat briefly, then remove from heat and serve over rice. 

Orange Chicken
Okay, I'm adding this in here because it's our favorite, but it is a bit more time-consuming than the others because you have to bread and fry the chicken.  However, the sauce is the bottled sauce, and even though I'm slow and hate deep frying it never takes me more than 45 minutes to make.  You can add vegetables to it if you like, we just usually have it without.  If you use vegetables, just stir-fry them in a tbsp of oil before adding chicken and sauce.  Again, just use the amount of meat your family normally eats, and breading to cover.  It's a bit of trial-and-error the first time, it's not hard after that. 

chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
flour (we usually use a combo of flour and finely crushed saltine crackers to up the texture)
salt and pepper (sometimes I add a dash of ground red pepper)
mixture of half egg and half milk
oil for frying
Panda Express Orange Sauce

Heat an 1-2 inches of oil in wok to about 350 degrees (if you don't have a thermometer, just test with a small piece of chicken to make sure it's frying immediately, but not burning). Put flour, salt and pepper into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag.  Dip chicken pieces in egg mixture, then add to flour mixture and shake to coat. Sift chicken from excess flour. Fry chicken in a single layer, cooking in batches if needed, until chicken is opaque. Drain on paper towels and set aside. I usually use a separate wok (you can use a skillet) to stir-fry the fried chicken with sauce until heated, then serve over rice. 

Okay, one more trick.  Our kids love Chinese food (as if they had a choice), and I know lots of kids are cool with rice. But if your kids aren't big fans of Asian food, or if you just want to add some novelty to dinner (like us), kids' chopsticks are really fun.  Regular chopsticks can be hard to master, but we bought some attached with springs at the top at the Kitchen Collection outlet that work great.  There are also lots of chopstick holders that hold them together at the top that come in all kinds of shapes that are really cute, too.  And Max likes to use little plastic tongs as his "chopsticks."

A recipe!

We made these quite a while ago, but I really liked them, so as I was going through pictures and came across this, I thought I would post it and share.  My awesome sister in law Shelli gave me this recipe, who got it from a friend.  She made pretzel bites and cinnamon-sugar pretzels with hers and said they were really good, but we just did traditional pretzels. 

Amish Soft Pretzels

Mix: 1 1/2 c. very warm water
1 1/2 TBS yeast
1/2 c. brown sugar
Let sit to soften yeast, then add:
3/4 tsp salt (scant)
4 c. flour

Mix then knead together and let sit for 15 min.  Form pretzels by taking a small piece of dough (size of lemon) and roll into a "rope".  Form into knot and dip into a solution of:

1 1/2 c. hot water
2 TBS soda

Place on GREASED baking sheet and sprinkle with pretzel salt (or you can use Margarita salt or leave plain). Bake at 550 degrees until browned - bakes very fast. WATCH !!  Remove from oven and dip tops in melted butter. May sprinkle with cinnamon sugar at this point if you haven't used salt.

Tips: When you are rolling out the dough, don't flour the counter.  They roll out better if they are just as-is, although no matter what it takes a long time to roll out the stiff dough.  The scale is hard to tell based on my picture (the pretzel is on a small salad plate), but I rolled them out too thick.  Bake them on the middle rack so they aren't too brown on the bottom or top.  Watch them as they cook, once they are an even golden brown they should be about right (if there are light patches, they may be doughy).

ETA: I made these again last week with my young women (church youth group, girls ages 14-15), and it was so fun.  There were only three girls that night, but we ate 10 by ourselves.  We did some regular pretzels with salt, but also the bites and some with cinnamon sugar, and they all turned out yummy.  The dough was also much easier to roll out this time, so it may have been the humidity or yeast when I made them before that caused the dough to be tougher to roll out.  It made about 13 pretzels whole pretzels (12, plus one cut into bites). 

Week 4, Day 3: Chicken with Lemon, Garlic, and Parsley

Tonight I made our dinner from Wednesday, which is a recipe from the Williams-Sonoma: Casual Entertaining cookbook Anne gave me. Just for kicks, here's the recipe and review.

Chicken with Lemon, Garlic, and Parsley
2 tbsp flour
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, about 1/2 lb each
3-5 cloves garlic
3/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped lemon zest (I grated mine with a cheese grater)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
3/4 cup chicken stock or broth
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (juice of 3-4 lemons)
1/2 cup dry white wine (I just used more chicken broth)

1. Spread the flour on a plate, then lightly coat both sides of each chicken breast half with the flour, shakin goff the excess. Finely chop 2 or 3 garlic cloves, then mince 1 or 2 additional cloves. Set aside the chopped garlic. In a small bowl, stir together the minced garlic to taste, the parsley, and lemon zest.
2. In a frying pan over high heat (I would do medium high next time), warm the olive oil. Add the chicken breasts and saute, turning once, until lightly browned, about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer to a platter, season to taste with salt and pepper, and set aside.
3. Pour off all but 2 tbsp of the fat from the pan. Add the finely chopped garlic to taste to the pan and saute over high heat until softened, about 20 seconds. Add the stock, lemon juice, and wine and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up any browned bits from the pan bottom. Bring to a boil and cook until slightly reduced, about 3 minutes.
4. Return the chicken to the pan and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the chicken is opaque throughout and the juices run clear when a breast half is pierced with a knife, about 10 minutes. (I ended up adding a few tablespoons of chicken broth during this because it was getting dry and the chicken hadn't cooked completely.) Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a warmed serving platter.
5. Raise the heat to high and boil the pan sauce until reduced to about 1/4 cup, about 5 minutes (I skipped this step because the sauce had already reduced considerably). Pour the sauce evenly over the chicken and sprinle the parsley-garlic mixture evenly over the top. Serve at once.

The Verdict: 2 thumbs up, 3 thumbs medium. The chicken was super moist, but the lemon flavor was too strong for Adam and the kids. I will use this method of cooking again (browning, then cooking in broth), but with different flavors.

And the winners are . . .

Tonight I post the results of and wrap up the dinner challenge (although I will probably make the chicken I missed Wednesday tomorrow and post about it). Deep breath, here goes!

The top four dinners, with 5 thumbs up each, are:
Asian Black Bean Soup (Becky McCollaum)
Peanut Noodles (Anne Curry)
Korean Short Ribs (Becky McCollaum)
Chicken Posole (Melissa Yoder)

Which means Becky, Anne, and Melissa are our winners!

Just to give you an idea of how we judged, I only took dinner recipes (not dessert) into consideration, but those who submitted dessert recipes that got 5 thumbs up won anyway. No, Max doesn't really give a literal thumbs up, I based his vote on how well he ate and whether he fussed about eating it--and if he nodded when I asked if he liked it. If there was only one thumbs up on the meal, it just may have been his. I think he only gave one or two "thumbs medium" during the whole challenge. If I "fudged" the voting, I clearly stated it when I posted about it, but none of the winning dinners were fudged.

Here's is what our winners will receive:

Crock-Pot Incredibly Easy Recipes

I hand-picked this cookbook with certain criteria in mind. It may not be the slickest, fanciest one out there, but here is what I like about it: I learned to really love the crock pot this month. It can really make your life easier, but it also can produce delicious (not just blob-like) food. I thought it might be nice to pay tribute to that. It has real life recipes, made from ingredients you can pronounce (and probably already buy), and they are mostly dishes that are familiar but interesting. Everyone needs easy recipes to fall back on, and that's why I really like the section of 4-ingredient recipes: because they are so simple but can produce great results. There are pictures of the recipes (okay, not all the recipes, I was a bit disappointed when I realized that, there are with most), so you can get an idea of what it should come out like. This helps me tremendously. It also is spiral bound, so it will lay flat on your counter as you refer to it. But most of all, it was something I would buy for myself. I hope you like it, winners!

To wrap up the dinner challenge, here are some things I came away with:

• Looking at the winning recipes, it's obvious our preference for Asian food. I love that because I feel it's a reflection on Adam and his influence on our dining choices. I think he really just likes Chinese food, but he also served a mission in the Philippines and I think that affects it, too. I feel like he's doing a good job to pass a bit of culture on to our children.
• I already mentioned this, but the crock pot can be a great tool. It's been fun to really learn how to use it.
• I have become much more confident in trusting my instincts when cooking. It's really important to follow a recipe, but it's also important to know when it isn't going to work, or how to make it better or tailor it to fit your family. This is something I generally suck at, but by the end, I was getting it down. "Oh, that's way too much onion (or garlic, or chili powder) for us." Or, "this definitely should have a bit more of this or that."
• My kids can, and will, eat new things. And particularly vegetables. We have much less whining than we used to (with the exeption of one night where Isaiah sat at the table for 2 hours), and my kids are beginning to choose healthy foods. Katie was floored to learn that chips aren't healthy, but it is no surprise to her what is: things that don't taste greasy, and brightly colored fruits and vegetables.
• It was so fun to teach the kids about new cultures. This was a totally unexpected side effect of this whole thing. I was looking things up to tell them about, and even printed a picture of the palace in Thailand so they could get an idea of what it looked like there. It became second nature for one of the kids to run for the map so we could show them where our dinner that night came from.
• I really have much more of an idea how much preparation it takes to eat something new every night, and appreciate having familiar recipes handy that I can make from what's already in the pantry and fridge. However, having a plan does take the guesswork out of what we are cooking and eating every night. It's good to have a plan.
• Most of all, I'm so grateful for you contributing your favorites, and subjecting yourselves to being judged. I'm also very grateful for my family for putting up with my neurotic need to try new things. I have such wonderful people in my life, and I'm very grateful.

Lastly, here is what I'll be adding to my recipe box, things that we will continue to make and why:

• Of course, all four of our winning dinners. Everyone liked them! I may try the ribs in the crock pot next time. And of course there may be some tweaking going on with all the recipes, but that's part of making them your own.
• Crock Pot Thai Curry It was so amazing how the vegetables kind of "melted" into the sauce and made it tasty without being all "vegetable-y." It had a great unique flavor and was much more interesting than our usual stir-fry.
• Crispy Orange Chicken Skillet I won't use the sauce from this recipe, but I will use the breading, and the almond rice pilaf recipe I linked to in the post. We have orange chicken a lot, and love the Panda Express Orange Chicken sauce.
• We all loooooved the Refried Black Beans and Spanish Rice Melissa submitted. They are new staples for our Mexican meals. I'm actually planning on buying a case of black beans to add to our food storage because of our experiences this month!
• Cafe Rio Pork Salad Okay, maybe this is unfair to actually share, but I have to say it: this was my favorite dinner to eat of the whole month. I could have had fourths if there had been any left (I did have seconds and thirds). It was also hands-down the most labor-intensive to make, so I won't be making it often. But I will be making it!
• Baked Chicken Chimichangas and Sweet Potato Burritos I probably won't be making either of these recipes as they are. However, through these recipes I learned an awesome new trick that my family does like: brushing the tortillas with olive oil before baking. They make the tortillas so crispy and good! I will use this for burritos in the future.
• Pizza Margherita I probably won't make this one exactly as is, either, but probably with tomato sauce instead of tomatoes. However, I am actually planning to try this dough with a make-it-yourself personal pizza bar in the near future. I think it will be fun for the kids to pick out their own toppings and make them exactly the way they like.
• Swedish Meatballs Really enjoyed the flavor of these meatballs.
• Sloppy Joes Isaiah begged me to make this again, so I'll tweak the sauce a bit and try it again.
• Farmer's Market Chili If our ward (congregation) has another chili cookoff this year, I may bring this recipe. It is really tasty and would stand out among the others.
• Fried Chicken with Herbs, Creamy Tex-Mex Corn with Lime, and Cheddar Biscuits I will file the chicken and biscuit recipes because they were awesome, and as I mentioned yesterday, I'll consider seasoning corn similarly (but without the sauce) again.

Thank you all for reading and playing along! And winners, your prize will be in the mail!