Pecan Rolls

Hubby made pecan rolls for his mom. I made the dough for the rolls in my bread machine.

Show Your Stuff #56 - Asian Baked Chicken

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. This week I am sharing an Asian Baked Chicken. My husband was inspired to change up baked chicken.  So here is the recipe:

Asian Baked Chicken
1/2 chicken (whatever your favorite part is)
1/8 cup sesame oil
1/8 cup Teriyaki Sauce
1/8 cup soy sauce
4 Tbl Peanut sauce
4 Tbl Fish sauce
1 Tbl White pepper
1 Tbl Ground Ginger
Panko Breading

Mix all ingredients except panko. Place chicken into 2 qt. casserole dish, Pour marinade over top of chicken making sure all chicken is covered. Cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours. Remove cover and use a brush to repaint the chicken. Liberally sprinkle panko over top of chicken. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 1 hour or until chicken reaches internal temp. of 165 degrees.
Now it is your turn to show off what you are proud of.

Merry Christmas

One of my many holiday traditions is the holiday baking. I got to make my holiday favorite, Toffee Squares. The recipe is found in the Betty Crocker Cookie Book.

Show Your Stuff #55

It is hard to belive that Christmas is just right around the corner. I don't think  I will be ready, but it usually works out in the end.  So here is a twist for the traditional chocolate chip cookie, I added about a cup of crushed pretzel. Turned out really tasty. 

Now I would like to see what you have to share.

Merry Christmas!

Tasty Lasagna

We made this tasty lasagna that has layers of meat sauce, lasagna noodles, pepperoni, cream cheese, and mozzarella cheese. It did turn out really good. I am going to have to make this again.

Show Your Stuff #54 - Chili

 
I would like to thank everyone who faithfully come back every week to participate in Show Your Stuff. It is hard to believe it has been over a year already.  So this week I am showing off my husband's famous chili recipe.

Show Your Stuff #53 - Cherry Mint Swirl Cookies

Over the past week we have making some cookies. The cookie recipe I am sharing this week is ....

 
Cherry Mint Swirl cookies

3/4 cup Shortening
3/4 cup Butter
2 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
5 cup flour
2 teaspoons mint flavoring
2 teaspoons cherry flavoring
red food coloring
green food coloring

Mix shortening, butter, sugar, and eggs until creamed. Add baking powder, salt, and flour, mix until smooth. Split dough into 2 halves. on first half add mint flavoring and green food color to desired color, mix well wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. repeat with other half and cherry flavor and red food color. after 1 hour cut each 1/2 in half. then roll out a green quarter on to wax paper (very thin) 1/8" thickness. repeat with other three quarters. Make sure all quarters are about the same size. Place a red sheet on top of green sheet and roll into log, wrap and refrigerate 1 hour. Repeat with other 2 sheets of dough. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, cut logs into 1/4" slices and place on ungreased cookie sheet. bake 7-8 minutes. makes 50-60 cookies.

Show Your Stuff #52 - Preparation, Cooking Tips, and Leftovers, What to do?

It is time again for another edition of Show Your Stuff . This week I have an article about preparation, cooking tips, and left overs. 




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Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Pancakes

Our son had learned to make pancakes when dad became laid up with foot surgery. Using dad's recipe, Charlie has come up with these cinnamon chocolate chip pancakes.

Happy Thanksgiving -Show Your Stuff #51

Visiting my daughter for Thanksgiving. Her turkey looks good! So now go ahead and show off what you are proud of.

Butterfinger Cookie Cake

I made this cake for my son's 18th birthday.  It is cookies layered with  Butterfingers and pudding. The pudding makes the cookies soft like cake in about 8 hours.  This is similar to my Butterfinger Dessert,  using chocolate chip cookies instead of angle food cake. So be warned that this will be a little heavy and rich, but oh it is soooo good!

So here is how you make it.

Make a batch of chocolate chip cookies, I have the original Nestle Toll House Recipe here.
make sure the cookies are cool.

Make the pudding:
1 Large box vanilla instant pudding mix
3 Cups milk
1 Large tub of Cool Whip
About 6-8 Butterfingers candy bars or a package of fun size bars.

Combine milk and pudding mix. Crush candy bars and add to pudding mix ( you can reserve some for garnish). Fold in Cool Whip.

I made my cake on a regular dinner plate. Put a small amount of pudding on the plate, add a layer of cookies. Cover cookies with pudding, Repeat adding cookies and pudding. finishing with pudding and garnish with crushed Butterfinger.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Cookies will get soft. Keep refridgerated.

Frito Crusted Chicken

Frito Corn Chips creates this tasty Chicken Recipe.

Twisted Chicken

4 chicken breasts
2 cups Frito corn chips crushed fine
1 cup salsa (your choice of heat)
salt and white pepper to taste
3T Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Mix corn chips, and Parmesan cheese in bowl. Place salsa in separate bowl. Salt and pepper chicken to taste, dip chicken in salsa, then into corn chip mix. Place on a cooking sheet coated in olive oil, after all chicken is coated and on pan spoon rest of salsa over chicken. bake 1 hour or until chicken is done internally.
Serve over a bed of Mexican rice.

Show your Stuff #50 - Easy Frito Pie

This week I am showing off an Easy Frito Pie. This recipe is similar to the Mexican Fun Food recipe I have listed, but this has more ingredients in it.

You will need:

1 Large Bag Fritos Corn Chips
1 pound ground beef
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 can of diced tomatos
1 can of dark red kidney beans
1 can nacho cheese sauce
8 oz package of Mexican Blend Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, brown ground beef in skillet and drain. Add the taco seasoning, tomatoes, beans, and nacho cheese. In a 2 quart casserole dish, layer Frito's on the the bottom, add the hamberger mix, add another layer of Frito's and top with the Mexican Cheese blend. Bake uncover for 20 minutes, Serve with salsa and sour cream, if desired.

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Salmon Croquet Patties

My husband made these yesterday for dinner with roasted potatoes and green beans.

Salmon croquet patties

1 can salmon
1 T mustard
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
2 eggs
3 T Parmesan cheese
1/4 C shredded cheddar
salt and pepper to taste
1 C panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350. Pick all bones out of salmon and drain, place all ingredients in mixing bowl and mix well. Form into patties and place on a sheet pan coated with olive oil.. sprinkle additional Parmesan cheese over top of patties. Bake 30 minutes.

Thanksgiving with a twist!

Over the years, I don't know about you but I get tired of the same "classic" meal year after year.I'm going to put a "twist" on some of your classic dishes to break up the routine year after year:

1) Cheesy potatoes - 1 bag shredded hash browns, 1 can cream of celery soup, 1 cup sour cream(substitute bacon and cheddar chip dip), 1 cup crushed corn flakes (substitute frosted flakes), and 8 oz. mixed cheese. Mix hash browns, soup, and dip, layer on baking sheet,salt and pepper to taste, and frosted flakes then cheese. bake 375 for 45 minutes.

2) Green bean casserole - 4 cans cut green beans drained, 2 cans cream of mushroom soup, 1 can nacho cheese sauce, 1 cup cooked and crumbled bacon, salt and pepper to taste, 1 small can sliced mushrooms (drained), 1 lg can fried onions. Mix all ingredients except fried onions and place in casserole dish, top with onions and bake 375 for 45 minutes.

3) Instead of biscuits try this: 2 boxes corn muffin mix, 1 egg, 1 can whole kernel corn (drained), 1/2 cup sour cream, Mix well. fill muffins tins 3/4 full and bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.

4) This one is quick and easy. Instead if pumpkin pie do this - buy individual tart shells, 3 cans of assorted fruit pie filling, 1 tub cool whip. Fill tart shells with assorted pie filling, put cool whip in pastry bag and top the pie filling. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

5) Garlic baked mashed potatoes -peel and cook 8 russet potatoes until done, add salt and pepper to taste, 3 tablespoons garlic powder, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (grated). Mash and place in casserole dish, top with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Notice I kept all baking temperatures the same since most of us only have access to 1 oven. keep watching in days and weeks to come for more delicious ans easy ideas for the holidays.

No Bake Healthy Cookies

I was in the mood to make no bake Nutella cookies, when I found that the link I had for the recipe did not work. After doing some search on the web, I found a healthy no bake cookie. So I altered it a little to include some Nutella. So here is the recipe.

3 T Milk
1/3 cup Sugar
1 T cocoa, However, I did not have cocoa on hand so I used about 2T chocolate chips.
1 1/2 t Vanilla
1/3 cup peanut butter and/or Nutella (I used a combination of both)
1/8 (or 2T) wheat germ
1 1/2 t flax seed (optional) - I used graham cracker crumbs
1 Cup oatmeal

Heat the milk, sugar, and chocolate. Add the peanut butter and/or nutella and vanilla, ounce it is melted, add the remaining ingredients. Drop by teaspoon size onto a platter and refrigerate until set. Store in refrigerator.
It did not make a lot. I got all my cookies to fit onto a dinner plate.

How To Save On Your Budget Without Depending On Coupons!

With all the stores competing for your business there are plenty of sales to take advantage of. Here are some tips to make that budget crunch stretch that much further:

1. Know what stores you want to patronize (in my area ie. Russ's IGA (r), Super Saver (ss), Hy-vee(hv)) I use 3 or 4 stores that are close to home so gas and milage does not factor in.

2. Know the basic prices of all your stores of items you use an a regular basis that are not on sale.

3. Sales flyers hit in Wednesdays. Read your flyers, look-up you stores on the internet (most websites have internet only ads.), take advantage of the 2 day sales or limited time offers. if ththe store has an"once in a life time price break" that you know will never happen again STOCK UP! If your store is out of a sales item get a rain check, it's not your fault they were not ready for you, they are usely good for 1 month and can add up in savings.

4. Make your weekly menu from the sales ads (of course combined with what your family likes). Be smart (if there is only 2 of you and they have whole chickens on sale make plans for 2 meals out of that chicken.)

5. Make your shopping list: item by item, place a note by each item where you are going to purchase from. If a sale item note that also by item, if not on sale and not sure where to buy list all places.

Example of my list:
Items                                           Sales
* Ground beef* hv                      Hy vee
Hot sauce hv, ss, r                      Ground beef 2.99 lb
chicken  
milk hv,ss,r                                Super saver
                                                   Whole chickens .79 lb.

6. Start shopping at the store you think has the best overall prices. Buy all sales items, and complete your list with all the items you know are cheapest at this store, repeat at the next store, then finish your list at the last store.

7. Be creative, be flexible, and use your common sense, When shopping for an item the store will display items at different eye levels, the most expensive will be at eye level and the cheapest is usually on the top shelf or the bottom shelf. You can be brand loyal if you want but most of the time the house brand is made by a major brand you just don't pay for the advertising.

8. Take a calculator if your not good with numbers and do the math for the best price, per ounce, per serving , or whatever the common denominator is. I have found if you use coupons use zero in on that products and there is another brand (usually the house brand) right next to it without a coupon. Good luck and have fun with it. Try new items and flavors, it will open a whole new world.

Show Your Stuff #49

This week I am showing off the Cornflake Cookie again. This time I added white chocolate chips. It still turned out really tasty.  So........

It is time again for another edition of Show Your Stuff. 

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Nutella Banana Chocolate Smoothie

Yum! You know you want to make one. You will need:

Frozen slices of a banana
1 cup milk
2-4 tablespoon Nutella
2-4 tablespoon chocolate syrup

Add all ingredients in blender, mix until combined. Enjoy!

Show Your Stuff #48

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It is time again for another edition of Show Your Stuff. Instead of showing off a food item, I am showing off a new baby hat pattern I wrote. You can find the pattern here on my other blog, Treasures Made From Yarn.

Hamburger Dish

This is a really basic hamburger dish with ground beef, spaghetti, peas, mushrooms, tomato soup, and spices. It was served with home made bread out of my bread machine.

Show Your Stuff #47 - Chocolate Satin Pie

I found a recipe for Chocolate Satin Pie in the grocery store. It is Nestle's recipe and you can find it here.

Home Made Hot Fudge Sauce

I made hot fudge sauce for my ice cream (cookies and cream). It was amazing! You can find the recipe here.

The Sweet Details: Nutella Ice Cream

I have got to try this! however I think I am the only Nutella fan in the house

The Sweet Details: Nutella Ice Cream: I made this ice cream for my man. He's a huge Nutella lover so I thought he'd love this ice cream and I was right! Also adding the almon...

Taco Turkey Burgers

Here is a recipe for some tasty turkey burgers with a Mexican flair.

1 pound ground turkey
1/2 package taco seasoning
1/4 cup salsa
1 egg
1cup bread crumbs
1 cup shredded cheese

Mix all ingredients. Form into patties. Heat skillet over medium heat with 3 T olive oil. Cook about 3 minutes each side until done.

Show Your Stuff #46

What I have to share this week is a coast made of magazine strips. I have seen bowls and coasters a while back and wanted to try it out.

 All I did was make about 1 inch folded it in thirds and rolled it up and fastened it with tape (because it is all I had on hand) I attached the next strip with tape and rolled around the previous strip. I am finding that I am not getting it tight as I like it. Next time I might use glue or a glue stick.

The Sweet Details: Ice Cream Pumpkin Pie

I wonder how receptive my family would be if I made this recipe:
The Sweet Details: Ice Cream Pumpkin Pie: I went to a ice cream parlor and had pumpkin pie soft serve, it blew my mind! I thought "I can make that!" so I started searching for a re...

Show Your Stuff #45 - Eggplant Parmesan

My sweet husband made the best Eggplant Parmesan the other night. It was nice of him to make it for me since I am the only one who really likes eggplant.

So here is the recipe:
1 eggplant, peeled and thinly sliced

Mix these ingredients for the breadcrumb mixture:
1 Cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup corn meal
1/2 T pepper
1/2 T garlic powder

Flour and buttermilk for coating the eggplant

your favorite spaghetti sauce
shredded mozzarella cheese





Heat deep fryer oil to 375 degrees

Take a slice of the the eggplant and first dip it in the breadcrumb mixture, then the buttermilk, and then the flour. Fry 3-4 minutes on each side. remove excess grease and place on a baking sheet. Once all the eggplant is fried up and placed on the baking sheet, top each slice with a couple tablespoons of spaghetti sauce and shredded cheese. place in 350 degree oven until the cheese is melted and brown. Serve as is or with noodles.