Saturday, November 30, 2013

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Show Your Stuff #104

Happy Thanksgiving! I am sharing an article my husband wrote last year.

Just Winging It: 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 &qu...







Monday, November 25, 2013

Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies

I am usually told NOT to use pumpkin in anything except pumpkin pie. I had made pumpkin orange soup once. I like it, nobody else did. So I now made up these pumpkin cookies and it turned out really well. Actually they are really good. These cookies would be great for the holidays, or anytime you are in the mood for pumpkin.

So here is the recipe.

1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 t cinnamon
1 t vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 cup butterscotch chips

Combine butter, sugars, egg, pumpkin, cinnamon, and vanilla. Add remaining ingredient. Drop by round teaspoonfuls on greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until done.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Tuna and Shrimp Pasta

I am not usually a fan of canned tuna, if fact I don't like it. I was reluctant to try this. The creaminess of the Alfredo sauce and the addition of the salad shrimp made this the best tuna dish I have ever had.
 
 
Tuna and shrimp casserole

16 oz. box Rotini
1 onion (diced)
2 cans tuna (drained)
1 small bag of Salad shrimp
1 jar Alfredo sauce
2 Tablespoons Oregano
2 Tablespoons Garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)
8 oz. frozen pea/ carrot mix

Boil noodles per instructions on box. While making pasta, Sweat onion in a 2 quart sauce pan. Add all other ingredients to the sauce pot and simmer on low until pasta is done. Drain pasta and place back into kettle, add sauce and stir well.


Thursday, November 21, 2013

Show Your Stuff #103 - Corn Chowder

Welcome back to another edition of Show Your Stuff. This week my husband is trying out a new corn chowder recipe. We have a soup contest coming up at our local church and is going to enter this recipe.
Corn Chowder with bacon and potatoes

1 lb. bacon fried crisp, patted dry and crumbled
2 1/2 cup milk
3 can cream corn
2 cup frozen hash browns
1 onion (diced)
2 Tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped celery
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons paprika

Prepare bacon and set aside. In a skillet saute onion and celery until sweating. Add all ingredients to slow cooker and cook on high for 4 - 5 hours, then reduce heat to low and cook additional 1-2 hours. Serve with sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, and tortilla strips.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Show Your Stuff #102 - Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

Welcome back! This week I have some tasty cream cheese chocolate cookies with cherry chips in them. I have seen cream cheese chocolate chip cookies on the web and thought I would try them.

 I just took the basic Toll House Recipe and substituted half the butter with cream cheese. I also chilled the dough before baking them.

I was looking for the cream cheese flavor in these cookies, but it was drowned out by the intense flavor of the cherry chips. But Still Good.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Just Winging It: This may become my favorite food site:http://www...

 The site I listed back in 2009 no longer works, but can find JIF on Pinterest!


Just Winging It: This may become my favorite food site:

http://www...
: This may become my favorite food site: http://www.jif.com/recipes/default.aspx

Monday, November 11, 2013

Is a Juice Cleanse Good for Me?

OK...I totally copy and pasted this article off the web.  I think there is good information here and there is a juice recipe I eventually want to try.  The only thing is that I don't own a juicer.

 

Is a Juice Cleanse Good for Me?

A detoxed system! A flatter stomach! These are just a couple of the big benefits that supposedly come with cleanses. Find out if they really deliver.
By Kate Parnham; Emily McKenna
After a particularly indulgent week (or season or year), the idea of doing a cleanse might seem appealing: Consume nothing but juices for a few days and—presto!—you're healthier. According to the companies who sell cleansing drinks, their regimens can help you fit into your jeans, boost your mental clarity, improve the state of your skin, regulate digestion, and, most important, remove toxins from your system—which is the key, they claim, to well-being.

Toxins, explained
Every day, we take in chemicals from our food (like colorants and preservatives), water (like chlorine), and air (like carbon monoxide). "Toxins can build up in the body, causing inflammation and a weakened immune system," says Susan Blum, M.D., the founder and director of the Blum Center for Health, an integrative medical facility in Rye Brook, New York. "This may make us more susceptible to chronic illness, such as headaches, arthritis, and asthma, not to mention heart disease and cancer." Our liver, kidneys, and colon are designed to filter and expel waste and toxins, but cleanse enthusiasts believe the hazards of modern life are too much for these organs to handle completely.

The theory behind cleanses
It's pretty simple: You replace all meals and snacks with juices made from (preferably organic) fruits and vegetables for about three to seven days. The idea is that when our bodies are freed from the burden of digesting solid food, they can more efficiently release the toxins swimming in our system. But while experts agree that juices contain many nutrients, "a special three-day cleanse won't magically improve your body's natural waste-removal system," says Christine L. Frissora, a gastroenterologist at New York–Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, in New York City. In fact, "we cleanse all the time if we eat properly, because that enables our bodies to function optimally," says Joel Fuhrman, a family physician in Flemington, New Jersey, and the author of Eat to Live (Little, Brown and Company).

What about weight loss?
You are likely to lose weight if you go on a cleansing regimen. "However, most of it is water weight," says Marissa Lippert, a registered dietitian in New York City. When you eat whole foods, especially carbohydrates such as breads and grains, your body needs to hold on to water to digest them properly. Take away the food and the water disappears, too, which can translate to a drop on the scale. The problem: When you begin eating solids again, the water may come right back, leaving you where you started. What's more, for some people, the restrictive nature of a cleanse can cause carbohydrate and sugar cravings, "making it easy to spiral back into not-so-great eating habits once you complete it," says Lippert.

Possible pitfalls
For most people, a short-term cleanse isn't dangerous; it just might make you tired and headachy (and hungry). But experts don't recommend cleanses for those who have certain medical conditions or are taking some prescription drugs. "Patients on medication to control blood pressure could faint if their blood pressure drops too low while on a cleanse," says Fuhrman. People on blood-sugar or diabetes medication could feel dizzy or faint, says Lippert. And it goes without saying that cleanses are off-limits to children and to women who are pregnant or breast-feeding.

The bottom line
"For good health, we need to not only reduce our exposure to toxins but also supply the body with the nutrients it requires," says Blum. It's fine if you want to jump on the juice bandwagon: Juices can be an easy way to get in your greens, for instance, without having to eat fistfuls of kale (see recipe below). But juices should be just one part of a balanced diet that includes minimally processed foods, good-quality lean protein, and plenty of whole fruits and vegetables—which, ironically, are the real cleansers. "They act like a scrub brush for your digestive tract," says Lippert. And while a cleanse could feel like a psychological jump-start to healthy eating, it's not the solution for long-term wellness. Simply put, "being healthy is a lifestyle," says Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., a certified nutrition specialist in Post Falls, Idaho, and the author of The Fat Flush Plan (McGraw-Hill). "It's not a one-time, three-day event."

Make your own healthy green juice
HANDS-ON TIME: 5 MINUTES
TOTAL TIME: 5 MINUTES
SERVES 2 (MAKES 2 CUPS)

1 cucumber (unpeeled), cut into spears
3 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch lengths
3 leaves kale, cut into 2-inch-wide strips
1 apple (unpeeled), cored and cut into chunks
1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley sprigs
½ lemon, peel removed with a knife

Feed the cucumber, celery, kale, apple, parsley, and lemon into a juicer. Discard the solids.

The information contained herein represents the opinions of a third party and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Mercer HR Services, LLC or MMC Securities Corp. and are unaffiliated with any of the entities referenced above.

Adapted from the October 2011 issue of Real Simple. © 2012 Time Inc. All rights reserved.

Saturday, November 09, 2013

Silent Sunday


Potato and Bacon Soup

We had bought a new crock pot and my husband was anxious to use it. So it got its debut with this creamy potato and bacon soup.

Potato and Bacon Soup

3 large potatoes (peeled and cubed)
1/2 lb. Bacon (crisp and crumbled)
1 Green pepper (diced)
1 onion (diced)
8 oz. sliced Mushrooms
1 - 47 oz. can Chicken Broth
1 - 26 oz. can Cream of Chicken soup
1 - 8 oz. package Cream Cheese
2 Tablespoons Basil
Salt and pepper to taste
Chives
Shredded Cheddar cheese

Fry bacon and set aside. Dice onion and green pepper and saute to sweating. cube cream cheese. Add all ingredients to slow cooker, set on high and let cook until potatoes get soft (about 6 hours) then turn to low and cook additional 2 hours. Sprinkle chopped chives and cheese on top of soup to give that restaurant look. 

Friday, November 08, 2013

Bacon Sloppy Joes


This is based off my mom's recipe, except I had a 1/2 package of bacon that needed to be used up.
 The bacon was a good idea.

1/2 - 1 package bacon
1 lb ground beef
1 chopped onion
2 T brown sugar
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 can tomato soup
1 cup (or equivalent to the can) of ketchup
salt and pepper to taste

Chop bacon into small pieces. Fry bacon until crisp. Add the onion and ground beef, and brown ground beef. Drain off fat from bacon and beef. Add remaining ingredients and heat thoroughly.
Serve on bun. 
 

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Show Your Stuff # 101 - Hamburger Stroganoff


I made this up for dinner and I forget to take a photo :(
So, instead of pulling out the box that supposedly helps out the hamburger,
make up this recipe instead. Chances are you have all these ingredients already.


1 pound ground beef
1 onion
8 oz mushrooms
1 T Worcestershire Sauce
1 packet brown gravy
1 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions in a little oil. Add ground beef. Once ground beef is cooked add mushrooms, Worcestershire Sauce, and brown gravy. Add sour cream only a few minutes you are ready to serve. Serve over noodles or rice.

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Cheesy Chicken and Rice

This version of chicken and rice dish has a slight southwestern flare in it with the salsa.
Cheesy Chicken and Rice

3 boneless chicken breasts (cut into strips)
3 tablespoons Mrs. Dash
1 cup Italian bread crumbs

Sauce
2 cups water
1/4 cup chicken broth powder
1 cup Salsa
1 1/2 cup Long grain rice
8 oz. Shredded Cheddar cheese

Mix bread crumbs and Mrs. Dash and bread the strips. Sear chicken on both sides and set aside. In a 2 qt. casserole dish mix the water, salsa, broth powder. Stir well then add rice, spreading it evenly throughout dish. Place Chicken on top of rice, then evenly place cheese on top. Bake in a 375 degree oven covered for 1 hour, then remove foil and bake and additional 15 minutes. Let stand for 3-4 minutes before serving.     

Monday, November 04, 2013

Milky Way Monster Cookies


I had bought a bag snack size Milky Way and I knew I wanted to make up some cookies with them. With a little search on the Web, I decided to make up some monster cookies.

These cookies have:
Chocolate
Peanut-butter
Milky Ways
Peanuts
Oatmeal

You can't go wrong with these ingredients!


So here are your ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 t corn syrup
1 t vanilla
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cup peanut butter
2 t baking soda
1 3/4 cup flour
3 cups oatmeal
2 cups chocolate chips
2 cups chopped Milky Ways
1 cup peanuts

Combine all the ingredients in the order given, Form into 1 inch mounds (I use an ice-cream scoop) and flatten on cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake in 350 degree oven and bake for 8-10 minutes.