Refrigerate After Opening

The other night I pulled out my Cool-Whip from the fridge to serve with an awesome dessert Janssen brought over (hmmm, maybe she will post the recipe....). All of my guests were puzzled by the fact that I store Cool-Whip in the fridge. Is that weird? One time I accidentally kept it in the freezer and dang, it was good. I thought, however, that you were supposed to keep it in the fridge. Then I read on the package "keep frozen". My whole world shifted. Who knew?

It begs an interesting question though. What do you do with those "questionable items" that no one knows if they should be refrigerated or not. Like say....vinegar? Soy Sauce? Worcester? I'm just curious. I keep my vinegars on the shelf. I hope you will still eat at my house!

Parmesan Fondue

Fondue is a tricky thing, at least cheese fondue is. It often turns out too thick and clogs your throat even before it gets a chance to clog your arteries! Either that or it calls for exotic cheeses that cost a fortune or wine, etc. Anyway, I found a great and simple recipe last night and it turned out great!

I got this recipe on www.allrecipes.com

Parmesan Fondue

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, cubed
• 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large saucepan, cook and stir the milk and cream cheese over low heat until cheese is melted. Stir in Parmesan cheese and garlic salt; cook and stir until heated through. Transfer to a fondue pot or mini slow cooker; keep warm. Serve with bread cubes.

There were four of us and I halved the recipe and still had plenty to spare (though we were being crammed with good food from every angle, so it wasn't that the fondue wasn't de-lish!). I added a little onion powder and pepper and substituted minced garlic for the garlic salt (buy that thing at Costco I tell ya). Also it was a little thick so I added maybe 1/4 C milk extra.

I served with
Red Pepper strips
Cubed french bread
apples
broccoli

bag the broccoli and go with more bread and apples ! Oh and don't freak if you don't have a fondue pot. I somehow lost the cord of mine so we just ate it from the pan on the stove and it was good, just a little hot!

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread (from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

3 cups white sugar

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.

2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

My only modification was to bake in 2 10" pans. Also, this bread really is much, much better when it's had time to cool. Make it the day before you'd like to eat or give as a gift.

Very yummy!

crockpot chicken meal

OK so i kind of made up this recipe but it is really good, and since i never have a lot of time to make dinner it is extra easy too. so if you feel like throwing some different things in here go ahead!


3-4 chicken breasts
cut up potatoes
mini carrots
sliced mushrooms
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 TBS chili powder
1 TBS cumin
garlic salt
season all
pepper
water


SO what i do is put the frozen chicken in the bottom of the crockpot and season it with the season all, garlic salt, pepper etc. Then just put in everything else, put enough water in to cover like 2/3 of the food and stir a bit. I cook it on high for about 4-5 hours, but longer is ok, it will just make everything a little more tender. We eat it like a soup with just some dinner rolls. Very Yummy.

Emergency Menu

Okay from that new blog I checked out I found another new blog that is awesome it is hillbillyhousewife.com, she has some fun recipes on there but the cool thing I found was that she has a $45/week menu for a family of 4 and a $70/week menu as well. These menus assume you are starting out with nothing on hand and she provides all of the recipes and a meal plan. I think I will try to do the $70 menu next week just for kicks. Well that and our grocery bills have been outrageous lately! So anyway, it's worth the time to check out!

No ice cream milk shake

I know, you're thinking, "What the...?". Seriously, I thought this was an interesting idea and gave it a shot and it was pretty yum, just so long as you didn't think too hard about it.

I got this recipe from everydayfoodstorage.blogspot.com (this is a way fun site by the way if you are wondering what to do with you thirteen cans of powdered milk, etc. Plus they have other novel ideas like making a million pb and j sandwhiches and freezing them for lunches, hello why did I not think of that?).

Chocolate Milk Shake with NO ice cream:-makes two 8-ounce cups
This one I know is hard to believe but it SO delicious! I don't think I'll ever make the kind with ice cream again!

1/2 C. Water
3/4 C. Dry Powdered Milk
1/3 C. Chocolate Powder
2 C. Ice

Layer ingredients in your blender as listed and blend until smooth. Serve immediately! Spruce it up with half of a banana for fun!

If you want a great variation, that tastes like it is a Jamba Juice "Peanut Butter Moo'd" then add one banana cut into 1 inch slices and 2 spoonfuls of peanut butter. The peanut butter and banana make it even smoother and add such a great complimentary taste.


Go ahead and laugh but when the world ends and there is no ice cream I will be eating chocolate shakes (assuming there is still ice).

Rosie's Chicken Salad with Tomatillo Dressing

Confession: I haven't tasted this yet - it's in the process of being "assembled" right now. But it looks and smells tasty. A sure-fire winner. Plus, you get to buy TOMATILLOS. I didn't know what a tomatillo was until last night at Winco (they do resemble an armadillo, if you were wondering). Also, I don't know why this font is so big and in bold. I'm not trying to be emphatic. Except for the capital letter part.

2 bunches of Romaine lettuce	Tortilla strips
Grilled chicken breasts	Avocado (optional)
1 ½ cups of Romano cheese	Tomatillo dressing
Zaterain’s black bean rice mix (prepared as directed-I add ¾ c. white rice, 1 ½ c. water)	½ bunch fresh cilantro (optional)
2 cans black beans, rinsed	Fresh lime slices (optional)

Chicken Garlic Lime Marinade:

¼ c. olive oil	Juice from 2 fresh limes
6 Tbl. Soy sauce	1 tsp. salt
¼ c. red wine vinegar	1 ½ tsp. black pepper
6 Tbl. Worcestershire sauce	Cloves of crushed fresh garlic
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

In a large resealable bag, blend all in the bag. Place the chicken breasts in and shake. Marinade for at least 6 hours. Try not to leave in longer, as the citrus juice will toughen the chicken. Rotate the bag often to get complete sides of chicken.

Rosie’s Tomatillo Dressing:

1 jalapeno pepper	¾ jar of Ranch dressing
2 medium tomatillos cut into bite size	Salt to taste
½ bunch fresh cilantro	Juice from 1 fresh lime

Pour Ranch dressing in blender, add tomatillo pieces and cilantro and jalapeno. Blend on high for about 1 minute or until the sauce is smooth. Pour in lime juice and blend.

Garlic pizza sauce

Papa Murphy's has this delicious pizza.... "Veggie Delite" that we love and since I still have like a hundred pounds of mushrooms I decided I would make my own instead of buying a Papa Murphy's one. I did some searching to figure out how to make the sauce and it turned out great, and it would be good on any sort of garlic chicken pizza too.

The recipe I found was

3 C ranch dressing

2 Tbs garlic

That's it. And since I wasn't making a hundred pizzas I just did 3/4 C ranch dressing and 2 Tbs garlic (we really like garlic). It's weird because having had the pizza before I never realized it was a ranch dressing based sauce, but it is and it tastes de-lish after baking.

For our pizza I topped with mozzerella cheese, roma tomatoes, mushrooms, grilled chicken and spinach. Though I haveb to say I don't really know how to do spinach on a pizza-- do you cook it before or put it on raw? I cooked it and it kind of made things soggy, but I think it would just burn if you put it on raw. So if you cook it to put on your pizza drain it really really really well and pat it dry and stuff. Luckily I only put spinach on half of the pizza (that's foresight for you), so only half was soggy : )

Also, are you still buying garlic cloves and chopping them up? You need to get prepackaged minced garlic. They sell the one pictured here for about $4 at costco, sooooo worth it.

Bacon Mushroom Chicken--mmmyeah

I bought an economy size package of mushrooms and so looked up recipes on allrecipes.com that would help me use one. This one was AWESOME. And also probably not weight watchers friendly. Whoops.

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 bone-in chicken breast halves, with skin
• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 thick slices bacon
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, halved
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Pour melted butter into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Add chicken, skin side down; sprinkle with seasoning salt and garlic. Turn chicken over, season, and lay bacon strips on top. Sprinkle with mushrooms.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 60 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.
4. Remove chicken, bacon and mushrooms to a platter and keep warm. Pour juices from baking dish into a small saucepan and whisk together with cream over low heat until thickened. Pour sauce over chicken and serve warm.

Okay, I used boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 4), I loaded tons of extra mushrooms on there, and two more slices of bacon. I halfway cooked the bacon beforehand so it would be crisp instead of soggy (ewww). Then instead of cream I used 1 C whole milk mixed with 2 tsp flour. See, I tried to reduce the calories! I served over spaghetti noodles.

Anyway I served it with a spinach salad with Ken's Steakhouse (um...I just looked over and Blaine is actually liking the pan in which I made the chicken, it's that good). Anyway Ken's Steakhouse light Raspberry Walnut vinaigrette, if you don't own it you should. It will help you eat more spinach.

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

Yay! I finally have a recipe to contribute. I got this from my sister-in-law and it's completely yummy and incredibly easy (and not very low-fat). What more could you ask for in a recipe? I'd give it 4 stars because it's just that good.

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

1 whole chicken boiled (or a few chicken breasts)
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
1/2 C butter
1 Tb poppy seeds
1/2 C sour cream

Mix together cracker crumbs, butter, and poppy seeds. Save 1/2 for topping, mix the other 1/2 in with the chicken, soup, and sour cream. Spread in an 8 x 8 pan and sprinkle with topping. Bake for 20 minutes at 350. Serve over rice. Serves 4. Double recipe for 9 x 13 pan.

Easy CheesecIKE (get it, Ike?)

I had some cream cheese that was going to go bad so I made a cheesecake, I've never made one before and it was so good. It was okay last night but it was still warm but this morning (yes, I've already eaten cheesecake this morning) when it was nice and cold it was delicious! !

We'll call it Ike's Cheesecake and I got the recipe from www.allrecipes.com

• 
  
• 1 (9 inch) prepared shortbread pie crust ( I made a crust from 9 whole graham crackers processed in food processor and 1/4 cup melted butter and just a dash of sugar, baked on 325 for 15 minutes)
  
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Cream together cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs one at time, blending well. Add vanilla and sour cream. Pour into shortbread crust.
3. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cake jiggles evenly across the top when lightly shaken. Run a knife around the outside edge, but leave the cake in the pan. Let cool on counter, then place in refrigerator. Remove from pan when completely chilled, and serve.

White Chili

This Chili is Delicious! I give it 4 stars for sure. Very easy too!
Mix and bring to a boil:
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
cooked and diced
1 med onion diced
1 Tbs vegetable oil ( for cooking chicken)
2-3 cans white beans ( any kind)
1 can chicken broth
1-2 small cans green chili's- diced
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ceyenne pepper (or less)
Remove from heat and add:
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whipping cream (not whipped topping)
simmer until warm and serve immediately. refrigerate leftovers.

This is great on a cold day with crackers or bread and butter.

Adams Family Friday night Pizza

1 cup warm water

1 tbsp white sugar

1 yeast packet or 2 1/2 tsp of yeast

1 tsp salt

2 tsp oil

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups white flour

This recipe makes one large pizza. This is easily doubled, tripled... except 1 yeast packet will do for two pizzas. I just add 1/2 tsp more yeast per pizza.

By hand: Start by dissolving sugar in hot water in large bowl. When the water feels like comfortable bath water - add yeast. Let stand until yeast is dissolved and kind of bubbly - about 2 minutes. Then add oil and salt. Stir in 1 cup wheat flour, then one cup white. Knead last 1/2 -3/4 cup flour into dough with floured hands. The dough ball should be nice and soft.

Stand Mixer: Start by dissolving sugar in hot water in your mixing bowl. When the water feels like comfortable bath water - add yeast. Let stand until yeast is dissolved and kind of bubbly about 2 minutes. Then add oil and salt. Mix on low with dough hooks and add in flour a cup at a time (wheat first), keep adding flour until soft dough ball pulls away from sides and forms a nice ball (about 2 1/2 cups total). Stop mixing and remove dough hooks and reshape into dough ball.

The rest: Take dough ball and set in bowl with plastic wrap on top in a warm area to rise for 15 minutes. Dough will double in size. Punch down and shape for your your pizza or bread sticks. Top with fav sauce, cheese, and toppings. Bake at 400 degrees on greased pizza pan. We have this every Friday night so this is from memory. Let me know how it works out for you.

(For sauce: We take on 4 oz can of tomato sauce or 1/2 can of tomato paste with added water, and add tsp sugar, tsp oil, tsp lemon juice, tsp pizza seasoning (mix of dried basil, oregano, and parsley), 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp salt...)