Magical Breakfast Cream

This is borrowed from The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook.  :)  I like the idea of the recipe.  It's simple and so healthful!
Preheat: --
Category: Breakfast, yogurt

1 serving
4-6 Tablespoons Yogurt (about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon flaxseed oil
1-2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
2 Tablespoons finely ground cereal with zero sugar
2 teaspoons finely ground walnuts

1.  Combine yogurt and oil, mixing well. 
2.  Add the lemon juice, mixing well.
3.  Add the honey and mix well.
4.  Finely ground the cereal and walnuts, then add and mix well.
5.  Serve immediately.

Arroz con Pollo

My mom and I thought this was fantastic!  It's flavorful and satisfying.  My HUSBAND, who doesn't like "saucy" rice, and my kids, who don't like... well, anything with vegetables and adult flavors... didn't eat hardly any of it.  I'm posting it here for the grown-ups who love flavor. :D

p.s.  This is a fantastic way to use leftover rice. :)

Arroz con Pollo

Preheat: --
Category: Mexican, comfort food, rice, chicken

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, cut into 1/2" strips (I used the chicken breast I had in my freezer)
3 Tablespoon oil (I used olive oil--yum)
1/2 pound mushrooms, quartered (I bought mine pre-sliced and used what I had left in the package)
1 medium onion, diced (I used a whole large yellow onion--I subbed some things instead of using premade salsa)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used four cloves, another sub for salsa)
2 cups salsa (In addition to the onion and garlic, I added a large can of diced tomatoes and minced some seeded jalapeno.  The seeds could have been left in, but I took out the heat for my kids.  If I made this again, I'd use TWO jalapenos, seeding one.  Oh!  I added some course-ground salt to this step, just shy of a teaspoon)
1 cup monterrey jack, shredded
1-2 cups chicken broth
2 cups cooked rice
salt + pepper
parsley or cilantro, for color (I used some dried cilantro; perfect in a pinch)
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 t. ground cayenne (unnecessary with the heat of the salsa/jalapenos)

1) Sauté the mushrooms, onion and garlic.  Oh, and I sautéed the jalapeno, too.

2) Add chicken, browning on all sides.  The recipe directions weren't very practical with the amount of sautéed vegetables in my skillet, so I settled for partially cooked.

3) Add salsa, rice.  Cook for about two minutes.  I went ahead and added in my spices at this stage.  Why not!  The cilantro needed time to freshen up.

4) Add broth.  I just used one cup of broth and it was still pretty soupy--I had to simmer down the liquid for a good 10 minutes.

5) Turn off heat and add cheese.  Mix in spices.

6)  Top with parsley and/or cilantro.  Serve hot.  We served this with broccoli, corn and peas.  :)

I'm Going to Buy a New Cookbook! (and so should you)

**Click here to be taken to any Food Nanny recipes I have uploaded**

I have to say that this is NOT a paid advertisement.  :)  Just in case you were wondering.  I will tell you if someone is actually paying me to review their book.  If that is the case, there will be no mistaking, even if I DON'T tell you because I will write the entire! review! with! myriads! of! exclamation! points! lol 

Liz Edmunds,
The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner: Easy Family Meals for Every Day of the Week

Love her.  I saw her on BYU TV, and not only is she adorable, SHE CAN COOK.  We had some creamy chicken soup today that everyone raved about. 

Normally when I find new recipe books, I pick out some recipes it looks like my family will go for and then return the book to the library.  This book is going back to the library, but I'm going to BUY it off of Amazon ($15, whereas it's selling for $25 at Borders and they'd have to special order it for me) next week.  This is a can't-live-without book!

What I Like: I like that Liz does dinner by assigning theme foods to each night.  They don't change.  You pick two recipes from each section then go to the grocery store.  You have everything you need for two delicious weeks of food.  Recipes are creative, NORMAL (a common problem I have with cookbooks is that we are not fancy food people) and delicious!  I like that she has suggestions for what to serve with each main dish.  That's an area where I've been lacking.  This afternoon, we had a loaf of freshly-baked bread with our lunch at her suggestion. :)  Most recipes are money-conscious, too.

What I Don't Like: I'm not sure if this will be a problem yet, but we need leftovers!  Daddy needs to be able to take dinner with him, and we need some extra food for our lunches.  The fact is that I can prepare double, but that also means spending double the money in groceries, which we just don't have.

Twist on Yogurt

I have to say first, that I tried to make yogurt in a crockpot...  It was a dismal failure.  I think maybe my crockpot was too large?  The recipe called for a 1/2 cup of plain yogurt and I had purchased a whole thing of plain yogurt because that's what was available.  I didn't want to use an entire eight cups of milk again, so I wanted to think of a way to eat the plain yogurt. 

I could have made a yummy Greek dish, but I was missing too many ingredients to make the special sauce (I'll post the recipe sometime in the future, ha ha), and we're constantly broke, soooo... I used some frozen strawberries I had purchased for a different recipe.  And so it began....

Categories: Yogurt, Strawberries, Breakfast, snack
Preheat: --

1 large container plain yogurt (I'll have to post ounces later, but you know what size I'm talking about, right??)
1 cup sugar (You may find this edited next time you access this recipe to be less sugar...)
1-3 cups frozen strawberries, thawed and cut up

1.  In a sealable container, mix together the container of plain yogurt, the sugar and the strawberries.  I used my huge Pampered Chef batter bowl as the container.  It's 8 cups and perfect.  Also, I just threw in the frozen strawberries whole.  The next morning, I took my scissors and cut up the strawberries before we ate it.

2.  Refrigerate.  I can't rave enough about "making" our yogurt this way!  It's delightful, and the strawberries are not mushy, they're firm and delicious.  Also, there's no added coloring (although I guess you could add color if you really wanted to).  FINALLY, you control how much sugar goes in. 

Mexican Lasagne

THIS. IS. THE. BEST. NEW. RECIPE.  You have to try it.  If you use my yummy homemade refried beans-in-a-crockpot recipe, it's soooo easy and inexpensive!

Preheat: 375*
Categories: Mexican, Lasagne, Casserole, Freezeable

1 pound (16 oz.) Ground beef
1 teaspoon Cumin
2 teaspoons Chili powder (I skipped the cumin/chili powder combo and used taco seasoning.  In fact, I made two pounds of taco meat the day before and used one pound for burritos and one pound for this.  It's just a friendly, helpful tip from me, the not-fabulous chef, ha ha.)

2 cans Chopped green chilis (I used one of the larger cans they've come out with.  There's a little more than what you would get in two cans of chopped green chilis, but it's LESS EXPENSIVE to do the one larger can.)
2 cans Stewed tomatoes, drained

Refried beans
Mexican shredded cheese (Puh-leeze.  Do you think I did anything more than use my extra-sharp cheddar cheese from Sam's Club.  You're right.  I didn't. :))
Sour Cream
Corn Tortillas (I used corn tortilla chips, and it was sooooo good)
Lettuce, chopped (honestly, this...
Tomatoes, diced (and this... are optional.  We ate it without these toppings (on accident, ha ha), and it was still good)
(opt.) Salsa
(opt.) Sour Cream

1.  Cook ground beef.  Season it while cooking with the cumin and chili powder.  Drain.  I added the refried beans at this step.  I know, I know, it's cheating, but it was so much easier than trying to spread the darned beans later on.

2.  In a large bowl, stir together cooked ground beef, chilis and tomatoes.  Um, I'd like to say that the chilis make this dish spi-cy.  My husband is so happy and grateful and the rest of us are drinking lots of water.  I'd say that's a win-win dinner!  :)

3.  Layer the bottom of a glass pan (yes, the recipe said glass pan.  There's no reason you can't use something else)  with 6 corn tortillas.  Again, I just used tortilla corn chips.  I think it would be delicious either way, but I'm partial to the chips.

4.  Cover with half of the meat mixture, then sprinkle cheese to cover.  I know this is a little confusing not having amounts of shredded cheese to work with.  I think they're expecting you to purchase a large package of cheese.  Personally, I used about two cups of grated cheese.

5.  Layer refried beans, meat, and cheese once again.  

6.  Bake for 25-30 minutes at 375*.  It needs to be bubbly-hot.  I like to use the broiler to brown the cheese for a few minutes, mmm.

7.  Serve with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream.

Basic Yellow Cake - Wilton

This is such a yummy, dense, moist cake.  Jonathan wasn't crazy about it, but I think it was soooo good.  We added strawberries (frozen, rinsed, cut up) into the mix and it turned out great!

Preheat: 350*

Categories: Cake, Dessert

3 cups Flour, sifted (I used all-purpose--do as you will)

2 1/2 teaspoons Baking powder

1/2 teaspoons Salt

1 3/4 cups Sugar

2/3 cup Butter (I melted mine)
2 Eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 1/4 cup Milk

1.  Grease a baking pan with butter.  I used a 9" circle pan.  Circle cake just tastes better than rectangle cake, don't you think so?

2.  Mix together dry ingredients into a large bowl.

3.  Whisk together the wet ingredients.  You don't want to move on until the lumps are whisked out!

4.  Combine the wet ingredients into the large dry ingredient bowl.  Stir together well.

5.  Pour batter into baking pan.

6.  Bake at 350* for 30-50 minutes.  I could have poured my batter into two 9" circle pans, but I really quite like putting it in just one pan... so much less work for a beautiful, circular cake.  I ALWAYS check my cake at about 30 minutes, even though I KNOW it's not going to be done yet.  I usually add on 7 minutes onto the timer after checking a still-jiggling cake. 

7.  Frost, if desired.  Also, if desired, use my favorite Better Homes and Gardens frosting recipe!!

My Camera's Charged!

 lost my camera charger and found it tonight!  (It had fallen behind our big freezer, of all places!)  So I'm a little camera happy--and since my kids, the primary camera targets) were in bed, I took pictures of what I'm making for dinner tomorrow--I'll post the step-by-step pictures on their individual recipes:

Duggar's Crockpot Chili: 

Homemade rolls:

And for breakfast tomorrow, I made some of our favorite Breakfast cake: